EFFECTS OF IN-SERVICE FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS USING MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS RELATED TO KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEFS

Ann KajanderCarlos Zerpa

LakeheadUniversityLakeheadUniversity

Based on the assumption that teachers’ mathematical knowledge and beliefs impact their capacity for high quality teaching, this study examined the results of various in-service opportunities and sought to document change in participating teachers. Effects were compared using a number of instruments in an attempt to probe for change in the short time period.

It is well documented that teachers’ content knowledge of mathematics is crucial for improving the quality of instruction in classrooms (An et al, 2004; Hill and Ball, 2004).Influencing teachers’ beliefs and values may also be essential to changing teachers’ classroom practices (Stipek et al, 2001).Hill and Ball feel that teachers can deepen their mathematics knowledge for elementary school teaching in the context of a single professional development program, and that a feature of successful programs is to foreground mathematical content (2004).

This study examined whether changes in teachers’ knowledge and beliefs were measurable after an eight month period, and which measures were most useful. Fourty Canadian seventh grade teachers received three days of professionally delivered Number and Operation inservice training and about half also took one or two online courses for teachers.Multiple measures were used in a pretest and posttest format, and two showed significant changes.The CKT-M Middle School Form A(Hill, Schilling & Ball, 2005)showed change in Number and Operation (the strand in which training was provided) but not in the other strands. The beliefs portion of the Perceptions of Math (POM) Survey (Kajander, 2005) showed an increase in valuing conceptual learning, and a decrease in valuing procedural learning.

These results indicate that mathematics content training can show change but is likely needed in all mathematics strands, as improvement was noted only in the strand addressed. Beliefs about the nature of mathematics itself also showed a shift to valuing conceptual learning.

References

An, S., Kulm, G., & Wu, G. (2004). The pedagogical content knowledge of middle school mathematics teachers in China and the U.S.Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 7(2), pp. 145-172.

Hill, H and Ball, D. (2004) Learning mathematics for teaching: Results from California’s mathematics professional development institutes. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 35(5), pp. 330-351.

Hill, H.C., Schilling, S.G. & Ball, D. L. (2005). Developing measures of teachers’ mathematics knowledge for teaching. Elementary School Journal. 105(1) 11-30.

Kajander, A. (2005).Moving towards conceptual understanding in the preservice classroom: A study of evolving knowledge and values. In G.M. Lloyd, M.R. Wilson, J.L. Wilkins, & S.L. Behm (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education [CD-ROM]. Eugene, OR: All Academic.

Stipek, D., Givvin, K., Salmon, J. and MacGyvers, V. (2001) Teachers’ beliefs and practices related to mathematics instruction. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, pp. 213-226.

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