Changes in Teachers’ Discourse About Students in a Professional Development on Learning Trajectories

Abstract

This study examines teachers' discussions in a professional development setting to understand the ways in which learning a mathematics learning trajectory may change aspects of their discourse about students as learners. Using mixed methods, we bring together two theoretical frames that use a Vygotskian perspective on learning to analyze professional discussions among 22 elementary-grade teachers participating in a yearlong, 60-hour mathematics professional development program. Results indicate that over time, some discursive patterns for explaining students' academic performance P. HOLT WILSON is an associate professor of mathematics education at

Enhancing Noticing: Using a Hypothetical Learning Trajectory to Improve Pre-service Primary Teachers’ Professional Discourse

“…In this sense, the discourse written by pre-service primary teachers using this specific language can inform us on the way they notice. Therefore, we can understand teacher learning "as change in discourse over time" (Wilson, Sztajn, Edgington, Webb, & Myers, 2017;p. 570).…”

“…In this sense, hypothetical learning trajectories can be regarded as a critical element in the virtuous circle of noticing in teacher education programs. Introducing the hypothetical learning trajectory as a guide could act as a scaffold in the development of pre-service teacher noticing since it helped PTs focus on details which "may assist teachers in leveraging students' existing understandings" (Wilson et al, 2017;p 571). The hypothetical learning trajectory provides pre-service teachers with a structure that facilitates the generation of a professional discourse, which includes evidence-based inferences.…”

How prospective kindergarten teachers develop their noticing skills: the instrumentation of a learning trajectory

“…In this case, we obtain evidence that noticing is developing when prospective teachers generate several available actions that interrelate perceived and interpreted details, the established relationships and the properties used to endow meaning to the situation. Furthermore, one can detect that there is progress in noticing when prospective teachers refine their framing of classroom events, as evidenced by changes in prospective teachers' discourse (Llinares, 2019;Wilson et al, 2017). This approach underlines the way in which prospective teachers frame a particular event as a function of their resources, orientations and goals (Scheiner, 2020).…”

“…Findings from previous research indicate that learning about mathematical learning trajectories may change prospective teachers' discourse on teaching situations and children's mathematical thinking (Wilson et al, 2017;Ivars et al, 2020). These studies focus mainly on describing and explaining changes in discursive patterns as evidence of developments in the teacher's capacity to notice children's mathematical thinking.…”

Prospective Mathematics Teachers as Learners in University and School Contexts

“…Prospective teachers' discourse can inform what is noticed and how. Understanding teacher learning as "change in discourse over time" (Wilson, Sztajn, Edgington, Webb, & Myers, 2017;p. 570), in particular changes in prospective teachers' discourse on mathematics teaching, can be interpreted as an indicator of enhanced noticing (Ivars, Fernández, Llinares & Choy, 2018).…”