Girls vs. boys in mathematics: Test scores provide one interpretation girls narratives suggest a different story

This study seeks to provide a data based critique of the claims of gender equity in mathematics. Specifically, this paper is an analysis of the personal well-remembered events (WREs) told and recorded by women who are in the first course of their preservice teaching professional sequence. Importantly, these are women who are on the professional track to teach mathematics. Using a narrative based methodology, the writings provide another angle of the intricate pieces of equity (i.e. test results say both genders are just as capable, stories of females say otherwise). The themes center around the safe zones, struggles, embarrassment, competition, and self-fulfilling prophecies. From these stories, we see subtle illustrations of existing gender inequities in mathematics

Further exploration of the classroom video analysis (CVA) instrument as a measure of usable knowledge for teaching mathematics: taking a knowledge system perspective

In this article we report further explorations of the classroom video analysis instrument (CVA), a measure of usable teacher knowledge based on scoring teachers’ written analyses of classroom video clips. Like other researchers, our work thus far has attempted to identify and measure separable components of teacher knowledge. In this study we take a different approach, viewing teacher knowledge as a system in which different knowledge components are flexibly brought to bear on specific teaching situations. We explore this idea through a series of exploratory factor analyses of teachers clip level scores across three different CVA scales (fractions, ratio and proportions, and variables, expressions, and equations), finding that a single dominant dimension explained from 55 to 63 % of variance in the scores. We interpret these results as consistent with a view that usable teacher knowledge requires both individual knowledge components, and an overarching ability to access and apply those components that are most relevant to a particular teaching episode

Mathematics anxiety: One size does not fit all

Mathematics educators agree elementary teachers should possess confidence and competence in teaching mathematics. Many prospective elementary teachers (particularly women) pursue careers in elementary teaching despite personal repeated experiences of mathematics anxiety. Previous studies of mathematics anxiety have tended to focus on physical sensations that occur during test-taking situations. This study analyzes how three women prospective elementary teachers described, explained, and related their experiences of mathematics anxiety while learning mathematics as K-12 students and while learning to teach mathematics. My research reveals that mathematics anxiety may reach beyond assessment situations and impact women prospective elementary teachers’ larger mathematical histories. I show how women prospective elementary teachers may interpret mathematics anxiety as specific fears (e.g., loss of social belonging, loss of personal identity, or loss of practical competency) and how specific coping strategies may be invented to cope with the fear. I present evidence of how coping strategies may impede mathematics learning

Mathematics Anxiety: Identity Work in a Gifted Prospective Elementary Teacher’s Mathematics-related Personal Narratives

Previous studies have focused on negative physiological sensations and psychological emotions of mathematics anxiety experienced in real time. Similarly, prior research has noted that prospective elementary teachers (PSTs) may experience such feelings of distress while learning to teach mathematics in their teacher-preparation programs. Mathematics teacher educators have sought to reduce elementary PSTs’ mathematics anxiety by improving their mathematical content knowledge and discipline-specific pedagogical knowledge. But why might mathematics anxiety persist even after elementary PSTs have successfully completed such teacher-preparation coursework? Our case study of a female elementary PST, identified as gifted, illustrates how mathematics anxiety, when reinforced by personal narratives that create and reiterate patterns in past mathematics learning, can operate as an enduring identity (e.g., a mathematics-avoidant identity), long after the stressful events prompting that anxiety have ended. Thus, such narrative identities can engender new/similar experiences of anxiety in present and future mathematics learning/teaching and can ultimately influence the educational and professional decision-making of adult PSTs, even though such self-understanding is based in oft-told stories of childhood and adolescence. The influence of mathematics-anxiety identities merits further exploration, as most previous studies of mathematics anxiety have tended not to address the significant identity work that PSTs undertake during professional development

Mathematical misconceptions of a different kind: Women preservice teachers’ working theories of mathematics teaching

Mathematical anxiety and confidence in women who are entering the elementary teaching field is a subject that has captured the interest of mathematics teacher educators. Previous research has revealed that women who pursue elementary teaching careers are often individuals who themselves have confronted anxiety and low confidence in mathematics during their own K-12 experiences (Brady & Bowd, 2006; McGlynn-Stewart, 2010; Sloan, 2010). Prior studies in mathematics education reveal that individuals’ experiences with mathematics shape how they think about doing and teaching mathematics (Ball, 1988; Rodríguez & Kitchen, 2005). Long before preservice teachers step foot into their teacher education program, their student experiences have shaped how they view mathematics as well as how they perceive their own mathematics abilities (Ball, 1988). “In short, prospective teachers do not arrive at formal teacher education “empty-headed.” Ball, 1988, p.40). Instead, they have already begun to develop a plan or a program of action (Kounin, 2009) of how teachers should teach mathematics. These teaching ideas are derived primarily from their personal experiences as mathematics students (Ball, 1988). Through the use of narratives, teacher educators can gain access to a better understanding of the sense making that preservice teachers have about what qualities and characteristics are important for a mathematics teacher to possess

Conversations between Preservice Teachers and Latina Mothers: An Avenue to Transformative Mathematics Teaching

Mathematics education researchers agree that students’ mathematical learning can be positively impacted by making connections to their out of school experiences through a funds of knowledge lens. This is especially important for diverse students whose experiences are often underrepresented in school curricula. Making these connections can be challenging for teachers whose experiences often differ from their students. We examine how conversations between preservice teachers and Latina mothers influenced the teachers’ creation of a mathematics lesson that connected to students’ out of school experiences. Findings suggest the importance of offering preservice teachers opportunities to learn from parents about their children’s out of school experiences

Positive turning points for girls in mathematics classrooms: Do they stand the test of time?

The purpose of this study is to examine the equity issue in mathematics from perspectives not traditionally included in equity claims. This study offers a close up view of personal experiences that female preservice teachers have encountered in their own journey as students of mathematics as well as how they make sense of their experiences, especially as they learn to teach. Different themes that arise in this issue of mathematics equity were examined in a study conducted by Stoehr and Carter (2011). This paper extends the previous study by examining and discussing the data-derived theme that centers on girls who experienced positive turning points in mathematics

What\u27s the Story? A Study of novice teachers\u27 narrative understandings of classroom events

The objective of this paper is to report the most recent results from an ongoing, multi-year research initiative at a large Research 1 University in the Southwestern United States. The purpose of this line of inquiry is to learn about how novice teachers develop narrative understandings of teaching. In particular, this study explores the cognitive understandings and personal sense-making strategies used by novices to story the classroom events they routinely observe in the field

Building the wall brick by brick: One woman prospective teacher\u27s experiences with mathematics anxiety

Mathematics education researchers have investigated mathematics anxiety in prospective elementary teachers. While many of these studies have focused on the bodily sensations and emotions of mathematics anxiety, particularly those felt in assessment situations, opportunities remain to investigate how prospective elementary teachers interpret their experiences with mathematics anxiety and connect them over time to compose personal histories of mathematics anxiety. Currently, over 90 % of elementary teachers in US schools are women, and women have been shown to suffer more from mathematics anxiety than do men. In this article, I analyze how one woman prospective elementary teacher described, explained, and related her experiences of mathematics anxiety across her personal narratives of learning mathematics as a K-12 student and of learning to teach mathematics as a college student in a teacher preparation program. My research demonstrates that experiences of mathematics anxiety may persist beyond assessment situations to influence women prospective elementary teachers’ larger mathematical histories. I also show that women prospective elementary teachers may interpret mathematics anxiety as specific fears (e.g., loss of opportunities for social participation) and may develop particular coping strategies related to those fears. Finally, I point out that while a coping strategy may be used consistently across K-12 mathematics learning and undergraduate teacher preparation, and may even offer a woman prospective elementary teacher some relief from mathematics anxiety, it may also limit her mathematics learning and professional development. To conclude, I present implications of my research for mathematics teacher educators

Can I teach mathematics? A study of preservice teachers’ self-efficacy and mathematics anxiety

This paper presents two studies (qualitative and quantitative) with the shared goal of exploring preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) experiences of mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy for mathematics teaching. Findings indicate that PSTs experience high levels of mathematics anxiety, impacting current learning and preference for teaching the content, as well as the development of self-efficacy for teaching mathematics and conceptions of ideal teaching. Findings regarding anxiety (fear) of evaluation and concern about being able to inspire students in their future classrooms converged across studies