ERIC Number: EJ791913
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-May
Pages: 18
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1954
EISSN: N/A
The Power of Colombian Mathematics Teachers' Conceptions of Social/Institutional Factors of Teaching
Agudelo-Valderrama, Cecilia
Educational Studies in Mathematics, v68 n1 p37-54 May 2008
In this paper I shall discuss data from a study on Colombian mathematics teachers' conceptions of their own teaching practices of beginning algebra, which led to the development of a theoretical model of teachers' thought structures designed as a thinking tool at the initial stage of the study. With a focus on the perspectives of teachers, the study investigated the relationship between the teachers' conceptions of beginning algebra and their conceptions of their own teaching practices, with a view to unravelling their conceptions of change in their practices. Significant findings which threw light on the aforementioned relationship have been presented in Agudelo-Valderrama, Clarke and Bishop (2007), highlighting a direct association between a teacher's conceptions of the nature of beginning algebra, the crucial determinants of her/his teaching practice, and her/his attitude to change. After an overview of the study, this paper focuses on specific evidence which clearly shows that in contrast to the strong relationship between a teacher's conceptions of mathematics and her/his teaching practice, assumed in the theoretical model of teachers' thought structures, the teachers see a strong relationship between their conceptions of social/institutional factors of teaching and what they do in their teaching. Implications of the findings for teacher education in Colombia are identified.
Descriptors: Mathematics Teachers, Teacher Attitudes, Algebra, Teaching Methods, Foreign Countries, Mathematics Instruction, Teaching Styles, Correlation, Social Influences
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Colombia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A