The emergence of constructivist epistemology, as the dominant educational philosophy, has been very influential on the current movement to improve the quality of education. NSW has seen the establishment of the NSW Institute of Teachers (NSW Government, 2004a), the development and publication of a generic set of standards for teaching (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2005a) and the implementation of the NSW Quality Teaching model of pedagogy since 2003. In mathematics education, philosophies of mathematics and mathematics teaching that are consistent with constructivism, are reflected in current and previous NSW syllabus documents as well as the standards document published by the Australian Association for Mathematics Teachers in 2002. Within the context of these documents this research project investigated my efforts, as a novice teacher of primary school mathematics, to implement quality mathematics teaching. This research evolved from a Bachelor of Education honours project, which found that despite recently graduating from university preservice teaching courses which advocate teaching pedagogy based on constructivist learning theories, beginning teachers, along with their more experienced colleagues, use largely traditional methodologies in their mathematics teaching. From the narrative and analysis of my experience, it is my aim to demonstrate ways in which support might be implemented for beginning teachers in the subject area of mathematics. While the research literature has investigated beginning teachers, it has not done so in this unique and evolving context. In this thesis the components of effective mathematics teaching were identified from the mathematics education literature, with a particular focus on the work of Doug and Barbara Clarke (Clarke and Clarke, 2004; Clarke, 1997) and linked to the more generic elements of the NSW model of pedagogy (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2003e). The resulting picture of the quality teaching of mathematics was then used to analyse the data collected in video-taped lessons as well as the issues that emerged from my teaching diaries, daybook and programs, utilising the NVivo 2 (QSR, 2002) computer program. The first year of teaching was undertaken on a part-time basis teaching only mathematics to a Year 2 class. The second year involved teaching a Year 4 class on a full-time basis. The impact of teaching full-time had an immediate impact on the time available to focus on mathematics teaching. Efforts to implement elements of best practice were subjugated by my need to survive the crushing workload associated with undertaking the programming, planning, teaching, assessing and reporting of all KLAs, each involving significant content. In considering the implications of the findings of this self-study project it is important to consider the implications, not only for the support of novice teachers but also for the students they teach. Despite the positive experience of having taught part-time, improving on the skills developed in previous professional placement and casual teaching experiences including classroom organisation, behaviour management and programming, taking on a full-time teaching load with a new grade was overwhelming. Implications regarding the types of support that would have been of benefit in assisting my efforts to do more than survive the early experiences of full-time teaching, and improve the quality of mathematics education experienced by my students are drawn. These include suggestions of how university courses might assist in bridging the gap between the vision of quality and the realities of teaching; reduced workload to allow significant opportunities for lesson preparation; formal mentoring, from someone other than a supervisor, and structures to support the establishment of collegial partnerships; preservice and inservice courses that move the teacher from an image of reform to identifying and developing a specific component in their own teaching; and the provision of innovative mathematics programs to support both beginning and experienced teachers in improving the quality of their mathematics teaching. Recommendations for further research are made. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/204571 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Forrester, Patricia A., University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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