Abstract
Research in mathematics education has investigated teachers’ professional knowledge in depth, comprising two different approaches: a cognitive and a situated perspective. Linking these two perspectives leads to addressing situation-specific skills such as perception, interpretation and decision-making, indicative of revealing a teacher’s knowledge while in the act of teaching. The aim of this study is to systematically review empirical research into mathematics teachers’ situation-specific skills. From the databases Eric, PsycINFO and MathEduc a total of 60 articles were included in the review, based on specific criteria. The studies were categorized with respect to theoretical frameworks used, designs and methods applied as well as the main findings of each study. Teachers’ noticing or teachers’ professional vision, and teachers’ (situated) professional knowledge were found to be the most frequent frameworks. Designs ranged from comprehensive case studies with a variety of methods to confirmatory studies testing a large sample with standardized instruments. The main findings suggest: (1) Teachers’ expertise and experience positively influence noticing and teachers’ noticing can be successfully fostered by (video-based) professional development programs. (2) Pre-service teachers struggle with perceiving and interpreting students’ work. Thereby, their mathematical knowledge plays an important role. (3) Teachers’ in-the-moment decision-making is influenced by their knowledge, beliefs and goals. (4) Teachers’ knowledge and belief facets predict their situation specific-skills which in turn correlate with aspects close to instructional practice. (5) Teachers have difficulties interpreting tasks and identifying their educational potential. Methods and implication of this systematic review are thoroughly discussed.
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Notes
By using truncation characters at the end of terms (*) it is specified that the search algorithms of ERIC, PsycINFO, and MathEduc includes all possible word endings, particularly plural forms or gerund (e.g. teacher, teachers or teaching).
Combination of Search Fields in detail (for ERIC): TI, AB, IF (teach* AND (competenc* OR knowledge OR skill* OR education OR cognition) AND (perception* OR attending OR interpret* OR decision* OR noticing OR notice OR "professional vision" OR situated OR “video-based“) AND math*).
The articles are marked with an * in the reference list.
The term ”teachers“ is used for pre- and in-service teachers in this section, if not further specified.
Instruments were categorized as tests, when they were (partly) derived from already validated instruments or provided information on reliability and validity of the instrument applied. Furthermore assessments composed of mathematical tasks teachers had to solve were categorized as tests.
Video-based assessments with open-end format as well as interviews that were conducted in written format were categorized as questionnaires.
Effect sizes (Cohens’ d or r) are reported, if given in the studies or if they could be calculated from presented data. When structural equation models were undertaken in the studies, standardized coefficients (βs) are reported. When latent class analysis was conducted, odds are reported. Information about significance is provided, when presented in the studies.
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Stahnke, R., Schueler, S. & Roesken-Winter, B. Teachers’ perception, interpretation, and decision-making: a systematic review of empirical mathematics education research. ZDM Mathematics Education 48, 1–27 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-016-0775-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-016-0775-y