Pre-service teacher learning and practice for mathematical literacy.
Date
2015-04-23
Authors
Winter, Mark Marx Jamali
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Abstract
This study explores the nature of pre-service Mathematical Literacy teachers' problem
solving with a focus on intra-mathematics and extra-mathematics connections, across two
years (2011-2012). The pre-service teachers were enrolled into a new three-year Bachelor of
Education course, Concepts and literacy in mathematics (CLM), at a large urban University
in South Africa. The CLM course aimed specifically at developing the teachers' fundamental
mathematical knowledge as well as contextual knowledge, which were believed to be key
components in ML teaching. The fact that the course offered a new approach to professional
teacher development in ML (pre-service), contrasting the old model (in-service) reported in
ML-related literature in South Africa, where qualified teachers from other subjects were reskilled,
coupled with the need to grow the pool of qualified ML teachers, provided a rationale
for conducting this study. Data relating to the pre-service teachers' responses to assessment
tasks within the course, and their school practicum periods focusing on classroom
mathematical working, combined with pedagogical orientations, was collected. PISA's
(OECD, 2010, 2013) dimensions of the mathematisation process provided the theoretical
framework while Graven and Venkat's (2007a) pedagogic agendas were used to make sense
of the pedagogic orientations in practice. The results relating to both learning and practice
suggest that the teachers' knowledge relating to model formulation, an aspect of extramathematics
connections, was weak across the two years. Nevertheless, improvements in
ways in which the dimensions ofthe mathematisation process occurred were noted across the
two years, with localised errors. In terms of pedagogic agendas foregrounded by the teachers
in ML classrooms, results indicate that agenda 2 (content and context driven) and agenda 3
(mainly content driven) featured more than agenda 1 (context driven) which supports the
rhetoric in the ML curriculum. Two implications to teacher training have been noted; first the
need for a focus on correctly translating quantities from problem situations into mathematical
models, and secondly, the need for promotion of provision of solution procedures with
pedagogic links. This study offers two key contributions namely; extending knowledge
relating to pre-service ML teacher training, and extending theory for understanding steps in
problem solving to incorporate aspects of pedagogy.