Making decisions about attainment grouping in mathematics: teacher agency and autonomy in Norway

Eriksen, Elisabeta; Solomon, Yvette; Bjerke, Annette Hessen; Gray, Jonathan; Kleve, Bodil

doi:10.1080/02671522.2022.2135014

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In reviewing the literature, we found that some countries, such as England and Germany, utilise mathematics textbooks that are adapted to different levels of ability (Pepin and Haggerty, 2003), indicating that level-marked tasks may not appear consistently in English and German mathematics classrooms. However, the use of level-marked tasks is extensive in Norwegian mathematics textbooks (Grave and Pepin, 2015) and classrooms (Eriksen et al, 2022). Although Skaalvik and Fossen (1995) claimed that textbooks require differentiation, our finding that the level marking of tasks negatively affects students' self-efficacy suggests that there is a need to investigate this in more detail.…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarksmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Here, we focus on differentiated instruction based on content and readiness by using level-marked mathematics tasks, as in tiered teaching (Pierce and Adams, 2005). We know that level-marked tasks feature in mathematics teachers' accounts of their teaching (Brändström, 2005;Czeglédy and Szász, 2005;Eriksen et al, 2022) and are used extensively as differentiation initiatives in mathematics classrooms (Grave and Pepin, 2015). In this regard, many mathematics textbooks have a system for marking the difficulty of tasks to help students "find their way" through them (Imsen, 2020, p. 421).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of level-marked mathematics tasks on students’ self-efficacy: An experimental study

Herset

Ghami

Bjerke³

2023

Front. Psychol.

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This study investigates whether and to what extent students’ self-efficacy in mathematics is affected by level-marked mathematics tasks. An online survey with an experimental design was used to collect data from lower secondary school students in Norway (n = 436). The effect of level-marked mathematics tasks was measured by comparing students’ responses to tasks with no level marking with their responses to the same tasks marked as being easy, medium or difficult. The study’s design was set up carefully, featuring experimental and control groups. A Wilcoxon test showed a significant gap in students’ self-efficacy when approaching the same tasks without level marking and with difficult-level marking. In addition, a Friedman test showed that the gap between students’ self-efficacy when encountering the same task with and without level marking expanded significantly with increasing difficulty markings. This result has implications for students in terms of their mathematics learning and for mathematics teachers in terms of their future differentiation initiatives.

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Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarksmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of level-marked mathematics tasks on students’ self-efficacy: An experimental study

Herset

Ghami

Bjerke³

2023

Front. Psychol.

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“…This interpretation opens up sustainable opportunities to learn in teachers' own professional communities, moving past the typical sharing of teaching ideas, provided of course that their colleagues have the same stance. This prerequisite is difficult to meet; teachers may distrust the value of probing colleagues' professional reasoning [3,15] or hesitate to voice alternatives to the main discourse of their community, especially when in a position with less power [27]. Our analysis of the changes reported by our teachers and the links that they make with particularities of the course led us to identify disruption as key.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Teacher Learning towards Equitable Mathematics Classrooms: Reframing Problems of Practice

Solomon,

Eriksen,

Bjerke

2023

Education Sciences

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This study responds to the debate on understanding and evaluating teacher learning in professional development programmes, with particular reference to the development of equitable mathematics classrooms. Conducted in the context of a year-long PD mathematics programme for primary teachers in Norway, designed to disrupt teachers’ assumptions about mathematics pedagogy and how it relates to students’ mathematical thinking, this study takes teachers’ entry goals as its point of departure. Sixteen teachers participated in interviews at the end of the course. Recognising the situated nature of the development of pedagogic judgement in our analysis of teachers’ reflections on their learning, we report on the shift in their “problems of practice” towards actionable concerns about student inclusion. We argue that this shift underpins a fundamental change in their assumptions about teaching and learning and a critical stance towards their own professional practice, suggesting an important indicator of what constitutes sustainable professional development for critical mathematics education.

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“…according to the tasks' level of difficulty (Grave & Pepin, 2015). Such tasks are called level-marked tasks, employed in tiered activities, and are often found in mathematics textbooks (Auliya & Widjajanti, 2023;Brändström, 2005;Grave & Pepin, 2015), and implemented in classroom practices (Eriksen et al, 2022;Grave & Pepin, 2015;Suarez, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Level-Marked Tasks on Students’ Mathematics Self-Efficacy and Persistence—Investigating a Tiered Activity

Herset,

Bjerke,

El Ghami

2024

IER

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In school mathematics, tiering tasks according to students’ readiness levels is a common approach to adapting content to address students’ varying abilities. To distinguish between different tiers, the tasks are commonly marked by their level of difficulty, as in so called level-marked tasks – a strategy used in differentiated instruction to help students gain mastery and improve performance. However, less is known about whether and to what extent the marking of the tasks works as intended. Regarded as a significant predictor of students’ performance in mathematics, the level marking of mathematics tasks and their effects on students’ self-efficacy and persistence were investigated. The online survey part of an experimental design was used to collect data from 436 lower secondary students in Norway. Independent sample t-tests and Mann–Whitney U tests revealed that, when students across groups were given the same mathematics tasks with and without level markings, tasks marked as difficult reduced both students’ mathematics self-efficacy and their persistence, even for students with high baseline self-efficacy. Although more research is needed to fully understand how the level markings of mathematics tasks affect students’ self-efficacy and persistence, the reported results have implications for both mathematics teachers and textbook authors.

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Making decisions about attainment grouping in mathematics: teacher agency and autonomy in Norway

Cited by 5 publications

References 32 publications

The effect of level-marked mathematics tasks on students’ self-efficacy: An experimental study

The effect of level-marked mathematics tasks on students’ self-efficacy: An experimental study

Teacher Learning towards Equitable Mathematics Classrooms: Reframing Problems of Practice

The Effect of Level-Marked Tasks on Students’ Mathematics Self-Efficacy and Persistence—Investigating a Tiered Activity

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