Promoting Mathematical Thinking in Finnish Mathematics Education

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Promoting mathematical thinking in Finnish mathematics education

Peer reviewe

Investigating Finnish teacher guides as a resource for mathematics teaching

The most commonly used Finnish mathematics teacher guides (Grades 1-6) are investigated so as to determine what kind of resource they constitute for teachers in planning and enacting mathematics teaching and what kind of mathematics classroom they promote. The structure and the main contents of the guides were found to be quite homogeneous. The nature of communication was mostly descriptive, but the separate activities suggested for each lesson were quite explicitly described. Suggested activities, such as mental calculation tasks and homework assignment, were typically motivated by non-specific rationales, and many activities seemed to be taken for granted in the Finnish mathematics classroom culture. The results add both to knowledge about how to analyse teacher guides and to knowledge about Finnish educational features.Peer reviewe

A cross-cultural study of teachers’ relation to curriculum materials

A number of studies show the complex relation between a teacher and curriculum materials influencing teachers’ actions in a mathematics classroom. This study investigates teachers’ relation to mathematics curriculum materials in three different cultural-educational contexts, namely in Sweden and in Finnish- and Swedish-speaking parts of Finland. The results are based on a survey among teachers (N = 603) who work in compulsory schools in these three contexts. The results support the previous findings, which show that curriculum materials are experienced by teachers as a guarantee of good quality in mathematics education, but, at the same time, as a burden. Some notable differences were found between teachers with various experiences in different contexts. The findings are discussed in terms of pedagogical design capacity and the specific character of the three contexts.Peer reviewe

Matematiikan didaktiikka tutkimuksen valossa - kohti kansainvälisyyttä

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Finnish primary teachers' interaction with curriculum materials - digitalisation as an augmenting element

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Procedural flexibility in early university mathematics

Procedural flexibility refers to the ability to choose efficient strategies for the solution of problems. We study procedural flexibility and accuracy when solving linear and quadratic equations as well as in systems of equations at the beginning of university mathematics. We also investigate the viability of the chosen domains for measuring flexibility in the setting of a tri-phase test. We conclude that university students show procedural flexibility and that accuracy and flexibility correlate positively with their course success. This contrasts the earlier results that only accuracy had a significant positive correlation with results of a delayed test among high school students. Finally, we show that we can measure flexibility for both quadratic equations and systems of equations.Peer reviewe

Procedural flexibility in early university mathematics

Procedural flexibility refers to the ability to choose efficient strategies for the solution of problems. We study procedural flexibility and accuracy when solving linear and quadratic equations as well as in systems of equations at the beginning of university mathematics. We also investigate the viability of the chosen domains for measuring flexibility in the setting of a tri-phase test. We conclude that university students show procedural flexibility and that accuracy and flexibility correlate positively with their course success. This contrasts the earlier results that only accuracy had a significant positive correlation with results of a delayed test among high school students. Finally, we show that we can measure flexibility for both quadratic equations and systems of equations.Peer reviewe

Estonian and Finnish teachers’ views about the textbooks in mathematics teaching

This paper explores Estonian and Finnish compulsory schools’ teachers views about mathematics textbooks and how they perceive the textbooks in mathematics teaching. The data consist of compulsory schools’ teachers’ (N= 420) responses on a 36-item questionnaire and it was analysed by help of quantitative methods. The main findings show that both the Finnish and the Estonian teachers found the textbooks somewhat important in assuring the high and even quality in mathematics teaching. The textbooks did not particularly load the teachers. However, the findings reveal some interesting differences in this respect between contexts and between teachers with different teaching experience. Findings from this study contribute to the research-field by adding research-based knowledge about the relationships between teachers and curriculum materials.Peer reviewe

Challenging traditional classroom practices : Swedish teachers’ interplay with Finnish curriculum materials

In the current paper, we present an analysis of a case study in which we have followed Swedish primary teachers who voluntarily began using translated Finnish curriculum materials, i.e. a textbook and teacher guide, in order to reform their mathematics teaching. The multifaceted data, consisting of questionnaires, interviews, protocols from collegial meetings and classroom observations, were gathered during the period 2010-2014. The analysis of the interplay within this cross-cultural setting reveals the special characteristics and the challenges existing in practice. Both the experienced and inexperienced teachers offloaded a great deal of their agency to the materials in order to become familiar with the ideas they mediated. Yet, the lack of a clear rationale behind the organization of the materials, as well as the suggested activities connected to taken-for-granted features of the Finnish teaching tradition, made fruitful interaction problematic. The changes teachers made in their classroom practice were tightly connected to the support offered in the materials, without which the teachers abandoned their new classroom patterns. Based on the results of this study, we suggest a number of general aspects that we regard as important to consider when implementing curriculum materials developed within another cultural-educational context.Peer reviewe