Teacher Characteristics Associated With Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs and Awareness of Their Students' Mathematical Dispositions

Abstract

This study investigates relationships between teacher characteristics and teachers' beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning and the extent to which teachers claim awareness of their students' mathematical dispositions. A professional background survey, a beliefs and awareness survey, and a teacher mathematical knowledge assessment were administered to 259 novice upper-elementary and 184 novice middle-grades teachers. Regression analyses revealed statistically significant relationships between teachers' beliefs and awareness and teachers' mathematical knowledge, special education certification, race, gender, and the percentage of their students with free and reduced meal status. This report offers interpretations of findings and implications for mathematics teacher education.

Antecedents of Teachers’ Educational Beliefs about Mathematics and Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching among In-Service Teachers in High Poverty Urban Schools

“…Thus, ethnicminority teachers are possibly more likely to find themselves in situations where it becomes more difficult to incorporate non-traditional, constructivist approaches in their instruction (Haberman, 1991), and in turn, this type of environment may influence their epistemic beliefs about mathematics. This finding is consistent with previous research that has found differences between teachers at low socioeconomic status schools versus teachers at high socioeconomic schools in terms of the extent to which they emphasize facts and procedures in their mathematics instruction (Clark et al, 2014;Minor, Desimone, Phillips, & Spencer, 2015). Consistent with this finding, prior research has indicated that racial/ethnic-minority teachers are more likely than White teachers to believe that the focus of mathematics instruction should be on memorization and procedural skills (Clark et al, 2014).…”

“…In addition, since change in knowledge does not occur in isolation, (Loucks-Horsley et al, 2010), one could conceivably argue that as knowledge changes, beliefs also change, and vice versa. Clark et al (2014) found a significant relationship between mathematics teachers' beliefs and mathematical knowledge. Therefore, professional development of teachers that focuses on developing teachers' knowledge and skills may also potentially change teachers' beliefs as it influences their content and pedagogical content knowledge.…”

“…This paper relies on the assumption that teachers' beliefs and knowledge complement each other but are distinct constructs (Loucks-Horsley et al, 2010;Pajares, 1992). There are different schools of thought in the literature about situating teachers' beliefs with respect to their knowledge (Clark et al, 2014;Kagan, 1992;Van Driel, Verloop, & de Vos, 1998). Regardless of how beliefs are situated and operationalized in teachers' knowledge base, it is unequivocally agreed upon that teachers' beliefs are important and related to teachers' knowledge (LoucksHorsley et al, 2010).…”

“…For example, according to Van Driel et al (1998), teachers' professional knowledge entails beliefs about various aspects of teaching and learning such as the content, pedagogy, students, and curriculum. Moreover, teacher beliefs about their ability to enact effective teaching methods for specific teaching goals has been found to be associated with PCK and mathematical knowledge (Clark et al, 2014;see Park & Oliver [2008] for a review).…”

“…We controlled for gender and ethnicity because previous research has noted that gendered and racialized experiences can also shape teachers' beliefs (c.f. Clark et al, 2014). Table 1 shows means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients between all background variables and teachers' beliefs and the change in beliefs.…”