Do cultural norms influence how teacher noticing is studied in different cultural contexts? A focus on expert norms of responding to students’ mathematical thinking

Abstract

As an important component of teaching expertise, teacher noticing is gaining growing attention in our intercultural mathematics education community. However, it is likely that in many cases the researchers’ perspectives on what characterizes high instructional quality in mathematics classrooms shape what they expect teachers to notice. In particular, it is an open question how potentially different norms of instructional quality influence how teacher noticing is operationalized in East Asian and Western cultures. Consequently, in a first step, this bicultural research project on teacher noticing in Taiwan and Germany focuses on exploring the researchers’ frames of reference for investigating teacher noticing. In this paper, we thus propose a concurrent process for developing vignettes and eliciting corresponding expert norms as a prerequisite to investigating teacher noticing in a way that is sensitive to different cultural contexts. In this process, the research teams in both countries developed in parallel, text vignettes in which, from their perspective, a breach of a norm regarding a specific aspect of instructional quality was integrated. In an online expert survey, these vignettes were then presented to German and Taiwanese researchers in mathematics education (19 from each country) to investigate whether these experts recognize the integrated breach of a norm. This approach allows researchers to identify potentially different norms of instructional quality in mathematics classrooms. In particular, by means of a specific representation of practice, it became visible how expert norms of responding to students’ mathematical thinking can be different from a Taiwanese compared to a German perspective.

Exemplifying the situated nature of teacher noticing: Elementary teachers' use of insider knowledge

“…Cognitive perspectives reinforce a knowledge-based approach to account for a teacher's subconscious attention, reasonings, and decision making based on their knowledge about teaching and learning (van Es & Sherin, 2002). Yet, factors beyond cognitive perspectives provide insight into influence on teachers' noticing, such as affective factors, teachers' dispositions and perceptions, and cultural contexts (Cross Francis et al, 2021;Dreher et al, 2021;Louie, 2018). Stahnke et al (2016) argues that cognitive based frameworks used to understand teacher noticing are disconnected from classroom situations and do not account for the socio-historical context as described by Mason (2002).…”

“…This implies that teachers' perceptions of their environment and students' responses are formed and refined through social interactions within and outside the classroom, affected by cultural, social, and historical contexts (Louie, 2018;Scheiner, 2021). Scholars continually caution against presumptions of neutrality for teacher noticing, which is contextdependent and influenced by cultural contexts and institutional narratives, preferences, and biases (Ball, 2011;Dreher et al, 2021;Erickson, 2011;Jilk, 2016;Mason, 2002;Louie et al, 2021;Thomas et al, 2021;Wager, 2014). This issue of neutrality and the situated nature of noticing is relevant considering the tendency toward deficit framing, which emphasizes students' mathematical shortcomings, a notable feature of American culture and teaching (Jilk, 2016;Louie et al, 2021;Thomas et al, 2021).…”

Pre-service teachers’ noticing: On the way to expert target

“…The lessons were to be self-contained (with no need for additional context) authentic lessons from Czech schools, with new content (familiar to PSTs) being introduced. It is considered a sign of teacher noticing if a breach of a norm (Dreher et al, 2021) regarding an aspect of instructional quality is noted. Teaching-learning situations bearing signs of didactic formalism (Janík et al, 2019) can be seen as a breach of the norm of quality teaching.…”

Identifying and dealing with student errors in the mathematics classroom: Cognitive and motivational requirements

“… Türling et al (2012) and Gewiese et al (2011) provided examples of a situated approach, using video vignettes to assess teachers’ understanding and knowledge of strategies for dealing with students’ errors and difficulties as more situation-specific facets of teachers’ competence. Several other studies have assessed teachers’ competence facets in more situated approaches using video vignettes ( Lindmeier et al, 2013 ; Dunekacke et al, 2015 ; Bruckmaier et al, 2016 ; Lazarevic, 2017 ; Griful-Freixenet et al, 2020 ; Dreher et al, 2021 ; Keppens et al, 2021 ; Larrain and Kaiser, 2022 ), classroom comic scenes ( Herbst et al, 2011 ; Friesen and Kuntze, 2020 ), or teaching observations ( Schlesinger and Jentsch, 2016 ).…”