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Teacher community for high school mathematics instruction: strengths and challenges

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Abstract

This paper reports changes of the quality of instruction and students’ attitudes towards mathematics at one high school during 3 years while teachers participated in a teacher community. The setting for this research was a small-sized high school in South Korea with 154 students and three mathematics teachers. I analyzed the teachers’ mathematics classes based on types of interaction, types of questions, and mathematical quality in instruction. Their students’ responses for the National Assessment of Educational Achievement study about attitudes towards mathematics were also analyzed. The findings show that this school, over all, improved the mathematical quality and changed the types of questions and the types of interactions towards students’ participation in discussing, exploring, and probing mathematical meanings. The students’ attitudes towards mathematics became more positive throughout the 3-year period. However, the changes in each teacher’s mathematics instruction were different. This study discusses the challenges of having an effective teacher community and researching teachers as learners.

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Notes

  1. These teachers’ names and the school name are pseudonyms.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partially funded by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017S1A5A8020730).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics Education, Silla University, Busan, South Korea

    Yeon Kim

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  1. Yeon Kim
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Correspondence to Yeon Kim.

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Appendix

Appendix

Questionnaire about students’ attitudes about mathematics by NAEA, which is translated to English (Park et al., 2016, p. 43).

category

items

confidence

I generally do mathematics well.

I think mathematics is one of my favorite subjects.

I learn mathematics quickly.

I understand difficult concepts in mathematics class.

I am confident in mathematics.

value

I think that mathematics helps me think logically.

I think mathematics is helpful in learning other subjects.

I think that mathematics helps me in everyday life.

Studying mathematics will help me do what I want to do later.

What I learn in mathematics class will help me get a job.

interest

I like mathematics.

I am happy to study mathematics.

I am interested in studying mathematics.

I think mathematics is a fun subject.

motivation

I study hard in mathematics class.

I do not give up when studying mathematics is hard.

I keep trying until I solve a mathematics problem.

I do my best when I study mathematics.

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Kim, Y. Teacher community for high school mathematics instruction: strengths and challenges. Educ Stud Math 104, 105–125 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-020-09943-6

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