Student teachers’ conceptions and experiences of pedagogical practices in mathematics education in teacher training colleges in Zimbabwe

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate educational social practices in mathematics education to understand how these practices can contribute to students' learning by connecting mathematical content to their daily lives and social reality. Theoretical Framework: The research is based on socioconstructivist and interactionist theories in mathematics education, with dialogues in Lev Vygotsky, which support the analysis of the relationship between mathematics and social contexts, highlighting the importance of contextualized teaching. Method: This is a literature review based on the analysis of academic productions discussing educational social practices in mathematics education. Articles, dissertations, and books published in the last ten years were consulted, using recognized academic databases. Results and Discussion: The analyzed studies indicate that incorporating social practices in mathematics education enhances content understanding, stimulates critical thinking, and increases student engagement. However, challenges such as teacher training and resistance to methodological changes are highlighted. Research Implications: The research contributes to the debate on innovative pedagogical strategies, providing insights for educators who wish to implement more contextualized and meaningful methodologies in mathematics teaching. Originality/Value: Article generated in the line of research on computational technologies for teaching science and mathematics in the postgraduate and professional program in teaching science and mathematics. This study expands the understanding of the relationship between mathematics education and social practices, emphasizing its potential to transform teaching and make it more dynamic and inclusive.

This part of the study served a double purpose. The opinions of the principals, teachers, and students gave perspective to the survey, and the personal opinions of the experts helped clarify contradictions and highlighted unknowns in certain areas of mathematical instruction and learning.

The purpose of the study is to identify key principles for structuring the content of psychological and pedagogical training of future teachers based on the analysis of the legal framework for professional training of teachers of secondary schools in Germany, and based on program-methodical and educational-methodical documentation of German universities as well. The author has found that the training of future secondary school teachers in German universities includes four blocks: 1) special-subject; 2) subject-didactic; 3) "Science of Education"; 4) professional and pedagogical practice. The author emphasizes the special significance of the block "Science of Education", because it reflects the content of psychological and pedagogical training of teachers. In the article it was revealed that the purpose of this block is to consider the main problems of teaching, education, and assessment of students, and the introduction of innovations based on the synthesis of knowledge in pedagogy, psychology, sociology. The basic fundamental task of the block "Science of Education" is to develop special reflective competence of future teachers. Teacher training standards for the block "Science of Education" are formulated in terms of competencies, which every future teacher should possess for the effective implementation of professional and pedagogical activities. There is a further development of the curriculum of psychological and pedagogical training of teachers on the basis of these standards. The central points of these standards are education and upbringing; profession and role of teacher; action strategies in decision-making situations; designing the learning process and learning environment; diagnostics, assessment, counseling; differentiation, integration, support; motivation for success and learning motivation; learning, development, socialization; communication, interaction and conflict management; media education; school development; research in the field of education. The author reveals two key areas of structuring the content of curricula in the block "Science of Education". The first one is based on the subject principle - through the definition of the list of disciplines and on the principle of interdisciplinarity. It provides conducting classes based on the synthesis of knowledge in pedagogical, psychological, and sociological sciences. It is proved that the interdisciplinary principle is determinative in the process of updating the content of psychological and pedagogical training of teachers in Germany.

GeoMaTech: Integrating Technology and New Pedagogical Approaches Into Primary and Secondary School Teaching to Enhance Mathematics Education in Hungary

There is general agreement that young children are capable of accessing mathematical ideas and should be given the opportunity to do so in their early childhood educational settings. However, existing research has established a range of challenges for early childhood mathematics education; in particular, related to educators’ confidence and competence in teaching mathematics. This article presents data from a national survey to address the research question: What are the mathematics education beliefs and practices of Under 3s educators in Australia? Findings from a sample of 195 respondents currently working in an Under 3s educational setting are reported in relation to three themes: 1. Educators’ understandings and self-understandings; 2. Educators’ skills and capabilities; and 3. Educators’ values and norms. In contrast to existing research that indicates low self-efficacy in mathematics among early childhood educators, this sample of Australian educators report positive self-understandings in relation to mathematics. They report high levels of comfort in their mathematics education practice, and appear to be perceptive of the range of mathematical ideas with which babies and toddlers engage. Moreover, educators appear to be comfortable in gaining ideas from babies and toddlers, which is an important practice contributing towards meaningful mathematics education for these young children.

The world over, selecting pre-service teachers for training represents a critical stage of teacher education. The process is meant to ensure that suitable candidates join the teaching profession, strengthen the teaching workforce and enhance education quality. However, discourse on student teacher selection into teacher training worldwide has raised numerous questions regarding whom to select and how to select. To date, there seems to be no consensus on selection criteria, mediational tools and rules for student selection into initial teacher education. This study sought to understand student teacher selection into four selected teacher training colleges in Zimbabwe. Through a multiple-site case study involving the selected teacher training colleges, a qualitative approach within an interpretive paradigm was adopted. A multi-modal approach to data generation which involved focus group discussions, interviews and observations of live student selection interviews was employed. Data were transcribed and manually analysed inductively utilising open coding. Drawing on the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and the Funnel Theory to unpack, understand and describe data, I argue that pre-service teacher selection into teacher training programmes involves many complex and convoluted processes. The findings suggest that mediational tools used in student teacher selection into teacher education in Zimbabwe combine psychological (language, knowledge, experiences and signs), and material tools (databases, SMS, written tests, interview schedules, interviews, print media, social media and word of mouth). The rules that guide student teacher selection into the four selected teacher training colleges include college guidelines, minimum requirements, academic performance, student teacher attributes, Public Service Regulations and quality assurance. Stakeholders respond to the demand for vacancies in various ways. Prospective students apply and attend selection interviews, and some unsuccessful candidates pay fees without the offer of vacancies. Government officials respond by submitting lists, while Responsible authorities, politicians, chiefs and community members also submit lists and demand quotas and lecturers threaten to strike if their relatives are not considered. This study further discovered that colleges invite too many candidates – more than 8 000 competing for approximately 500 to 600 vacancies – using a 20-25 minutes interview as the selection tool. In the absence of Ministry policy, colleges adopt diverse tools and rules for student selection. This study argues for an additive model which combines selection tools, guided by clearly laid down Ministry policy for student selection to provide standardisation across colleges and make the process more robust. The thesis suggests a need for further research into enhancing student teacher selection into teacher training colleges. In relation to CHAT, my argument is that the framework provides a useful generic, analytical tool for thinking through the interactions and relationships between human, non-human and social elements on how student teacher selection happens in the activity system – the teacher training college. However, on its own, CHAT does not provide a complete lens to make sense of what happens in the stage-by-stage movement of the prospective student on the selection journey. The thesis, therefore, argues for an additive model to CHAT, which includes a complementary lens – Funnel theory – to expand the framework and deepen its applicability, specifically in trying to understand student teacher selection processes. The thesis suggests the need for more studies, drawing on the framework and developing it to determine its applicability beyond this particular inquiry

Mathematics Curriculum Evaluation

Teaching practice is a very important component of any teacher-training programme. A student teacher is given the opportunity to try the art of teaching and face the real world of work before joining the profession. This study makes a closer scrutiny of mentorship, an approach currently in use by most teacher training colleges in Zimbabwe, where student teachers on teaching practice are attached to qualified and experienced teachers who work as their mentors. The study sought to : (a) find out the student teachers views on the effectiveness of the role played by their mentors in developing them to be experts in teaching; (b) determine the mentors' level of preparedness for their role of assisting and guiding students under their care to professionally grow, and (c) assess the implications for teacher education in Zimbabwe. This study used 222 student teachers who had been on a teaching practice stint and teachers who worked as mentors in 31 Zimbabwean primary schools. The study revealed that in the majority of cases student teachers showed that they had not benefited very much from mentorship. The mentors themselves appeared not to be aware of their role in mentoring student teachers attached to them. There is no doubt that experienced and qualified teachers in schools require constant and thorough workshopping to enable them to help student teachers professionally grow.

Practices in mathematics education are essential to foster effective learning. They provide structured approaches for teaching, help build foundational skills, enhance problem solving abilities, and promote a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. Consistent practices also contribute to standardized assessments and ensure a more cohesive educational experience for students. Practices in mathematics education are crucial for several reasons. They offer a systematic framework for teaching and learning, ensuring that students receive consistent and structured instruction. These practices help educators adapt to diverse learning styles and provide a basis for assessing student progress. Additionally, established practices contribute to the development of critical thinking, problem solving skills, and a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. Overall, they play a key role in creating a more effective and standardized learning experience In this paper we will discuss some new advance practices in Mathematics education. Here we will see the actual advance practice then the objective, procedure and finally benefits of it.

Based on principles of constructivism, an analysis is made of how practice in mathematical education might be reformed towards a professional practice. In addition to the widespread recommendations that mathematical teaching be based on interactive communication and that mathematical learning be active, we argue that conventional school mathematics be replaced by a constructivist school mathematics. A constructivist school mathematics is based on children's use of their schemes of action and operation in learning situations, and whatever accommodation the children make in these schemes as they use them. Through examples of our learning of the numerical schemes of five year old children we illustrate what we mean by a constructivist school mathematics. In our examples, we characterize the schemes of action and operation that we attribute to children as our interpretations of the children's activities. For this reason, we define a constructivist school mathematics to be the results of the observer's experiential abstractions in the context of interacting with children mathematically. A professional teacher is cast as one with the intellectual autonomy and power to produce a constructivist school mathematics, including the involved situations of learning and interactive mathematical communication.

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) emphasizes learning through experiencing and constructing. Where IBL is often applied in science education, the conceptualization of IBL practices in mathematics education is less obvious. We compared students’ reports on IBL practices in two different teaching cultures as an attempt to better understand IBL practices in connection with overarching teaching cultures. In this study, we investigated IBL practices in lower-secondary mathematics lessons in the Beijing area and the Netherlands through a survey about the experiences and preferences of 858 Chinese students and 441 Dutch students. Results show that students from the Beijing sample reported experiencing IBL activities in most mathematics lessons, while students from the Dutch sample reported them in some lessons, and both preferred the same amount of IBL activities as they experienced. The Dutch sample reported little experience with posing questions to tackle. The study also suggests a correlation between IBL experience and IBL preference of each class: students with more IBL experience are likely to show a higher preference for IBL activities. Results of this study do not confirm expectations based on stereotypes about the two teaching cultures. The students’ perspective in both samples suggests that providing complex problems and organizing group work have potential for further encouraging IBL in mathematics.

Elevating clinical practice in mathematics education has potential to greatly transform the preparation of effective mathematics teachers. In the current climate of education, clinical practice includes: (1) traditional undergraduates in an educator preparation program, (2) post-baccalaureate individuals who have a degree in another field who are working on their initial teacher license, and (3) teachers in residency programs where full-time teachers are simultaneously earning their license. This book provides cases of all three groups with an emphasis on how clinical practices and course work effectively prepares effective mathematics teachers. This book showcases 51 examples of clinical practice in mathematics education. The cases are organized in chapters with each chapter focused on one of the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics Effective Teaching Practices (NCTM, 2014). Each chapter includes cases aligned to the 8 Teaching Practices with discussion questions and an example clinical practice activity.

Most pre-service teacher training programs around the world conform to the traditional model in which student teachers undergo intensive theoretical coursework training on campus followed by an extended classroom practice in schools. In this qualitative research study, the National University of Lesotho science teacher training curriculum, pedagogies and methodologies employed on campus and in practice schools were explored. That was triggered by persistently reported observations of student teachers’ inadequacy in classroom teaching during Teaching Practice. The thrust of the research question was the development of the student teachers in learning to teach. The directly involved people who were interviewed and provided their written reports included: two Teacher Educators for Year IV Curriculum Studies courses, ten Student Teachers from each course and their twenty Teaching Practice Tutors. The relevant documents complemented the primary data from the interviews and the produced written reports. The main findings revealed relevant teacher knowledge domains and their components dealt with in the preparation of student teachers for their work in schools. Four main findings that distinctly had a perceptible bearing on student teachers’ learning and practice were the exclusion of assessment as a topic in the course content and teaching, the cross-cutting fragmentation, limited time and teacher educators’ modeling. A limited follow-up study conducted introduced an intervention program targeting one area of fragmentation in the training program. It was implemented in one practice school with one student teacher and his mentor. That was done to explore the possible means of a collaborative rather than cooperative partnership based on the expectations of the Faculty of Education about the field learning experience for the student teacher. The intervention revealed some promising benefits for the student teacher and the tutor that could inform program improvement as discussed and the recommendations made thereof. It was hoped that the results of the two studies would form the basis for or add to the research into other areas of teacher training and teacher education policies and practices that could curb the fragmentation in order to achieve the aspired beneficial and quality education. Article visualizations:

During the last decades, the study of how learners and teachers of mathematics use the resource of language has contributed to our understanding of mathematics teaching and learning in a variety of classrooms and cultures. Developmental work with mathematics teachers on the particular resource of mathematics teaching talk is more recent. In order to explore responses related to the importance of this talk, in this paper we consider three sites of practice in mathematics education—research, professional development and teaching—and illustrations of data from or about them, including studies from the literature, and work with secondary school mathematics teachers in Catalonia-Spain and Malawi around the teaching of angles. We argue that tensions permeate these sites of practice when a focus is placed on word use, specifically the practices of naming and explaining, in mathematics teaching talk. We conclude that the importance of mathematics teaching talk is construed through tensions with other resources in language and teaching. Tensions specifically appear in the realisation of mathematics teaching talk as mediational in the work with mathematics teachers on their classroom teaching.

Though they are geographically close, England and France's underlying philosophies regarding education and, for the focus of this paper, mathematics education, exhibit differences worth considering. The English system, influenced by the humanism school of thought, can be characterised by its desire to treat each student as an individual--and to guide the students in their social, emotional, as well as cognitive developments. In contrast, the French system places less emphasis on affective concerns, but rather focuses on the rational and functional aspects of educationfor all its citizens--areflection of the encyclopaedic roots of French education. The results of these distinctive philosophical orientations can be seen in the practice of mathematics education in the two countries. For example, differences exist in their views on setting, the availability and use of textbooks, and in the day-to-day school culture. An examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the two European systems suggests potential changes could be made in New Zealand. These changes include: making mathematics an explicit, rather than implicit, gatekeeper; addressing the roles of the teacher; and changing the structure of the school day. Introduction Every country is unique--defined by its history, its values, and its people--but that is not to say it does not share similarities with other nations. England and France are two countries that share an intermingled history and geographical proximity, yet that are philosophically quite different when it comes to the principles governing education, and in this instance, mathematics education. I believe it is these differences that should be explored further in our consideration of the New Zealand curriculum and its development. Such international comparisons enable us to get a better appreciation of where New Zealand is from a global perspective, and provide an avenue for assessing what we are doing well, and what lessons can be learnt. The initial inquiry into the similarities and differences of education in an Anglo-Saxon context, in comparison with a French one, stemmed from a personal visit to France in the summer of 2004/2005. I discovered that, despite having a poor level of French, I was generally able to understand the mathematics studied in the classroom. It soon became evident that the linguistic differences were not the problem; the challenges were adapting to the socio-mathematical norms established in the class. While the mathematics itself appeared to be much the same, there are nevertheless pedagogical differences between the French and Anglo-Saxon cultures, which I aim to address in this article. First, some contributing influences to the philosophy and practice of education in both countries today are examined. Second, examples of differences in classroom realities within these countries, including the manner in which the mathematics is taught, the use of teaching resources like textbooks, and the implications surrounding homework activities are considered. These cultural differences, however, are simply examples of political, social, or philosophical influences which manifest themselves in each of the countries. Moreover, there have been significant political, philosophical, and pragmatic shifts in the course of each country's educational and social history--which can have profound effects on the educational practices we see in today's classrooms. Therefore, it is not intended to suggest that these differences are generalisable for the whole of England, France, and New Zealand. In today's context, it is first and foremost interesting to analyse the French and the English approach to mathematics education, given the blurring of geographical boundaries, and the prevalence of educational comparisons between European countries, in addition to the Europeanisation that is allowing for much greater mobility of teachers (Broadfoot, Osborn, Planel, & Sharpe, 2000; McLean, 1990; Pepin, 1998, 1999c; Planel, 1997; Ravn, 2002; Robertson, 2000). …