Deconstructing ‘good practice’ teaching videos: An analysis of pre-service teachers’ reflections

Video clips of mathematics lessons are used extensively in pre-service teacher education and continuing professional development activities. Given course time constraints, an opportunity to critique these videos is not always possible. Because of this, and because pre-service teachers make extensive use of material found during internet searches, much of it purporting to exemplify ‘good’ practice, we were interested to know what sense they make of such material. By encouraging pre-service teachers to reflect and comment on the practices being promoted in this way, we wanted to hear what they focused on, their initial views of the teaching and learning shown in the video, and how their views were formed and affected by engaging in discussion. Findings indicate that pre-service teachers’ responses to the material were dominated by their beliefs about mathematics, and that engaging in discussion enabled them to appreciate the interpretations of others

Pre-service primary teachers' approaches to mathematical generalisation

In our teaching with primary pre-service teachers (PSTs), each of us includes generalising tasks in the context of mathematical reasoning. We set out to explore the value of such activity from the perspective of PSTs and their approaches to generalisation. In this paper, we focus on one PST’s mathematical reasoning when working on the ‘flower beds’ problem. We analyse the ways in which this PST attends to: looking for a relationship; seeing structure within a single figure in a sequence; and seeing sameness and difference between figures in a sequence. We consider what motivates shifts in attention, we reflect on the significance of students’ prior experience, and of student collaboration in our teaching sessions

Primary pre-service teachers: reasoning and generalisation

Generalising tasks, in the context of mathematical reasoning, have featured in our work with primary pre-service teachers (PSTs). We used two particular problems - 'matchstick squares' and 'flower beds' - to explore the generalisation approaches taken by PSTs. In this paper, we analyse the ways in which one of them, Terry, uses recursive or functional approaches to generalisation, and how he attends to looking for a relationship and seeing sameness and difference between figures in a sequence. We consider what motivates shifts in attention, the significance of the PST's prior experience and of PST-collaboration in our teaching sessions. We conclude with a discussion about the significance of this activity in the PST’s preparation for teaching, with reference to Mason's (2010) notions of pro-spection and retro-spection.https://bsrlm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BCME9-Research-Proceedings.pd

What knowledge is necessary to encourage mathematical talk?

This paper presents the results from a follow-up study to a London Mayor’s funded project which aimed to support teachers of KS1 pupils (age 4-6) to encourage mathematical talk in their classrooms. The original study was an eighteen-month intervention programme to support teachers to develop their mathematics subject knowledge and their use of mathematical talk by providing readings and activities to use in school with their pupils. Findings from follow-up interviews with eight teachers suggest that the impact of developing subject knowledge gave teachers the confidence to try different pedagogical approaches related to talk

Mathematical talk: links with Subject Knowledge?

This poster presents the results from a follow-up study to a London Mayor’s funded project which aimed to support teachers of KS1 pupils (age 4-6) to encourage mathematical talk in their classrooms. The original study was an eighteen-month intervention programme to support teachers to develop their mathematics subject knowledge, as well as providing readings and activities to use in school with their pupils. Findings from follow-up interviews with eight teachers suggest that teachers want to feel confident about their subject knowledge before they feel able to encourage more mathematical talk in their classrooms

Elevated CO2 reduces field decomposition rates of betula-pendula (roth) leaf-litter.

The effect of elevated atmospheric CO2 and nutrient supply on elemental composition and decomposition rates of tree leaf litter was studied using litters derived from birch (Betula pendula Roth.) plants grown under two levels of atmospheric CO2 (ambient and ambient +250 ppm) and two nutrient regimes in solar domes. CO2 and nutrient treatments affected the chemical composition of leaves, both independently and interactively. The elevated CO2 and unfertilized soil regime significantly enhanced lignin/N and C/N ratios of birch leaves. Decomposition was studied using field litter-bags, and marked differences were observed in the decomposition rates of litters derived from the two treatments, with the highest weight remaining being associated with litter derived from the enhanced CO2 and unfertilized regime. Highly significant correlations were shown between birch litter decomposition rates and lignin/N and C/N ratios. It can be concluded, from this study, that at levels of atmospheric CO2 predicted for the middle of the next century a deterioration of litter quality will result in decreased decomposition rates, leading to reduction of nutrient mineralization and increased C storage in forest ecosystems. However, such conclusions are difficult to generalize, since tree responses to elevated CO2 depend on soil nutritional status