Developing self-efficacy in teaching mathematics: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the role of subject knowledge

Two major concerns in mathematics teacher education are the role of subject matter knowledge and the development of self-efficacy in pre-service teachers. This article brings these issues together in an exploration of the interaction between pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their subject matter knowledge and their accounts of university and placement experiences as potential sources of self-efficacy. Reporting on a group of ten pre-service teachers in Norway, we explore variations in the ways in which they perceived the role of subject knowledge in relation to experience, particularly ‘mastery experiences’, over a period of nearly two years. We suggest that recognition of the role of ‘understanding why’ in mathematics is crucial in the experience of mastery, and that there is a need to focus more on the role of subject matter knowledge in all sources of self-efficacy in teaching mathematics

Developing self-efficacy through an extra preparatory school year: Lower secondary students’ perspectives on teacher support

Quantitative and qualitative data have rarely been combined to offer a rich portrait of how self-efficacy develops in a specific context. We responded to this limitation by investigating students’ experiences of an extra school year between lower and upper secondary school. The objective of the extra school year is to reduce school dropout by strengthening students’ professional and social competences before they enter upper secondary education. The purpose of this paper was to explore how the students’ self-efficacy developed during the extra preparatory school year and to evaluate their perspective on the changes in their self-efficacy and sources of development. We applied a mixed methods design using a threefold questionnaire and individual interviews. The data collected for this study were part of a larger research project. Pre- and post-tests using a survey were applied to measure general self-efficacy, Norwegian self-efficacy and mathematics self-efficacy in individuals. A total of 23 qualitative semi-structured interviews with students near the end of their extra preparatory school year complemented the quantitative data. The data were analysed using a combination of Rasch analysis and thematic analysis. Our findings showed that learning and learning processes cannot be seen in isolation from the context, and we concluded that teachers are a central source of students’ self-efficacy. In this study, the teachers, in their capacity as facilitators and source performers, helped the students work with their individual purposes in mind, both within the domain of qualification and socialisation. However, these purposes could not have been achieved without the initiative and responsibility of each student. By building positive and trustful relationships with their students, the teachers managed to activate the students and help them take responsibility for the social and academic aspects of their lives. From the students’ point of view, the teachers seemed to build contexts in which the educational purposes were present, viewable, sensible and reachable – and important for nurturing the students’ self-efficacy. The students reported on their self-acceptance and feeling of belonging, being forward-looking and being able to portray their future selves as a consequence of mastering their academic disciplines. This study offers a methodological contribution in that we combined quantitative and qualitative data to analyse the students’ self-efficacy. The qualitative data allowed for a more comprehensive understanding of the students’ increased self-efficacy than that derived from the quantitative data alone. Keywords: self-efficacy, dropouts, sources of self-efficacy, teacher’s role, mixed methods, thematic analysis, Rasch analysispublishedVersio

The effect of level-marked mathematics tasks on students’ self-efficacy : An experimental study

This study investigates whether and to what extent students’ self-efficacy in mathematics is affected by level-marked mathematics tasks. An online survey with an experimental design was used to collect data from lower secondary school students in Norway (n = 436). The effect of level-marked mathematics tasks was measured by comparing students’ responses to tasks with no level marking with their responses to the same tasks marked as being easy, medium or difficult. The study’s design was set up carefully, featuring experimental and control groups. A Wilcoxon test showed a significant gap in students’ self-efficacy when approaching the same tasks without level marking and with difficult-level marking. In addition, a Friedman test showed that the gap between students’ self-efficacy when encountering the same task with and without level marking expanded significantly with increasing difficulty markings. This result has implications for students in terms of their mathematics learning and for mathematics teachers in terms of their future differentiation initiatives.publishedVersio

A Tripartite Cooperation? The Challenges of School-University Collaboration in Mathematics Teacher Education in Norway

One goal of Norway’s new primary teacher education programme of 2010 was improved school placement: the relationship between the teacher education institution, practice schools and pre-service teachers was to be formalized as a tripartite cooperation. However, in the area of mathematics education, cooperation is not straightforward: tensions arise because of pre-service teachers’ prior experience and beliefs, and differences between university college training and school practice. This paper reports on questionnaire data and focus group interviews with first-year pre-service teachers and their mentors following school placement. It illustrates the complexity of the partners hip and its impact on pre-service teachers’ professional development in the area of mathematics.Norges forskningsråd 21226

The relative age effect shifts students’ choice of educational track even within a school system promoting equal opportunities

In most education systems, the age of a given cohort of students spans up to 12 months, which creates a within-class age difference, or relative age effect, that tends to disadvantage younger students. Because birth month indeed correlates with academic performance, with poorer outcomes for students born later in the year, the effect can have lifelong consequences for students, whose academic performance justifies their acceptance into different educational tracks. Although past studies have identified the relative age effect in students’ choice of educational track in school systems in which students make such choices at the age of 10–14 years, we examined data from the Norwegian school system, in which education tracks are chosen at the age of 15–16 years. The dataset included the variables birth month, track choice, and gender, of all 28,231 pupils at the upper secondary school level in a school county in Norway. Birth month was compared between vocational and academic track choices and the results revealed a significant relative age effect on educational choices between academic and vocational tracks, such that younger students were significantly more likely to apply for vocational tracks. The effect was significantly stronger for boys compared to girls. This indicates that the choice of educational track may reflect students’ relative age, especially among boys, and hence, not be based on interests alone. Those findings have implications for actors involved in ensuring equity in education systems in Norway and elsewhere. Keywords: relative age effect, vocational track, academic track, gender, upper secondary school, Norway, trackingpublishedVersio

Prospective teachers navigating intersecting communities of practice: early school placement

An issue of particular concern in mathematics teacher education is the relationship between theory and practice, and the nature of university–school partnerships. We report here on results from a research project answering the call for a more systematic understanding of the practice learning context. The study focuses on the new Norwegian elementary teacher education programme and highlights the difficulties involved in connecting theory and practice and how prospective teachers may be supported in this respect. Focus group interviews involving 51 first-year prospective teachers and 25 teacher–mentors investigated early school placements, specifically prospective teachers’ positions in the classroom as teachers of mathematics, and the ways in which the mentoring relationship supported their developing role. Taking a communities of practice perspective, we found that the idea of movement across intersecting and sometimes conflicting communities of practice is helpful in aiding our understanding of the difficulty of connecting theory and practice. Additionally, variations in mentoring styles and perceptions of prospective teachers’ mathematics and pedagogic knowledge competencies play a part in some prospective teachers’ difficulties in taking up a role as legitimate peripheral participant in the school. We conclude by considering ways in which prospective teachers might be better supported to cope with school placement

The development of pre-service teachers' self-efficacy in teaching mathematics

Teacher efficacy has received much attention in the general field of educational research, but applications in mathematics teacher education are few. In order to deepen the understanding of the nature and development of self-efficacy in teaching mathematics (SETM) during teacher education, the study presented here followed over a period of two years pre-service teachers (PSTs) preparing to teach primary school mathematics in Norway (grades 1–7, ages 6–13). Their developing SETM was investigated by means of an instrument designed to target the core activity of teaching mathematics: helping a generic child with mathematics tasks. A comparison of responses collected from 191 novice PSTs with those from the same cohort two years later (n = 103) shows a rise in SETM in the typical PST, and indicates the nature of the development of SETM during teacher education

The story of Maia: I will try to survive!

Two major concerns in mathematics teacher education research are the role of subject matter knowledge and the development of self-efficacy in teaching mathematics (SETM) in preservice teachers (PSTs). These two bodies of research are normally not brought together, but I do so by investigating PSTs’ SETM using an instrument developed with Skemp’s two ways of understanding mathematics as the point of departure, and by exploring the sources of SETM through longitudinally conducted semi-structured interviews over a period of nearly two years. A focus on how one PST, Maia, drew on different sources of SETM, contributing to a new understanding of the agency of those PSTs that are recognised as “weak” because “they don’t know any maths”

The Growth of self-efficacy in teaching mathematics in pre-service teachers: developing educational purpose

Thesis submitted for the degree of philosophiae doctor (Ph.D.) in Educational Science for Teacher Education. Utgivelsesdata Tittel:The growth of self-efficacy in teaching mathematics in pre-service teachers: developing educational purposeForfatter(e):Annette Hessen BjerkeSerie:HiOA avhandlingerIssn:1893-0476Nr:2017 nr 7Utgiver:HiOAAvdeling/fakultet:LUISider:227Pris:350,– ISBN-print:978-82-8364-054-

The Digital Transformation of Higher Education Teaching: Four Pedagogical Prescriptions to Move Active Learning Pedagogy Forward

Digital learning technologies are expected to reform higher education: The recent Digital Education Action Plan (2021–2027) of the European Commission (EC) states that digital education should facilitate more personalised, flexible, and student-centred teaching (European Commission, 2021). This places great demands on university teachers, whose technological skills have long been considered the most formidable barrier to the digital transformation of higher education (Børte et al., 2020). Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a steep technological learning curve among higher education teachers. Overnight, university teachers were forced to adapt their teaching to a digital, online format to meet the needs of more than 1.5 billion students across the globe who have been affected by COVID-19 restrictions (UNESCO, 2021). Despite a great willingness to change, over a year into the pandemic, the frustration among (university) teachers has become apparent. A United Kingdom survey found that higher education teachers thought that their pedagogical practis had been “reduced to the fulfilment of rudimentary technical functions” and that they played more of a transmissionist pedagogical role (Watermeyer et al., 2020). Taking the perspective of the students, recent survey data from Norwegian higher education shows that, during the pandemic, lack of motivation and sense of loneliness have been an increasing problem among students (NOKUT the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education, 2020). From this we learn that a fully digital approach in higher education has limitations both when it comes to pedagogical practices and students’ well-being