Abstract
Teachers’ knowledge of discipline-specific pedagogy affects classroom practices which in turn affect learning by pupils. While there are many desirable practices which demonstrate strong principles of mathematics-specific pedagogy, teachers’ adoption and use of these practices in part depend on the value placed on them by the school management. This chapter presents the quantitative and qualitative findings of a survey as well as insights from interviews of primary schools’ mathematics department heads on their perceptions of the importance of various teachers’ practices in contributing towards effective mathematics teaching and learning. The study shows that the department heads value practices which contribute towards conceptual learning and pupil motivation to learn which go beyond achievement in performance tests.
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Acknowledgements
This chapter is based on work from the project Knowledge for Teaching Primary Mathematics (EP 1/03 MQ), also known as the MPCK project. The authors acknowledge the generous funding of the project from the Education Research Fund, Ministry of Education, Singapore. The authors would like to express their thanks to Eric Chan, Wai Kwong Cheang and Luan Eng Ng for their various contributions in the work of the project which has resulted in this chapter.
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Lim-Teo, S.K., Chua, K.G., Yeo, J.K.K. (2011). Perceptions of School Mathematics Department Heads on Effective Practices for Learning Mathematics. In: Li, Y., Kaiser, G. (eds) Expertise in Mathematics Instruction. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7707-6_11
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