Page 166 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews

164
Chapter 5
Discussion
In this study, we investigated whether or not the use of dynamic math interviews could help teachers adequately identify the math learning needs of children and to what extent the use of dynamic math interviews could subsequently improve the mathematical development of children initially showing low mathematics achievement. Positive results were found for improved understanding of the math learning needs of children with initially low mathematics achievement. No significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups for mathematical development.
Eighteen of the nineteen interviews (94.7%) showed clear identification of specific math learning needs, such as the need for concrete visual-schematic representations, the need to read more carefully, the need to write down interim results, and the need to persevere and therefore not give up. It can be assumed that these needs and accompanying recommendations would not have been revealed using of standard testing. The conduct of a dynamic math interview allows the teacher to better appreciate the child’s point of view, identify their specific math learning needs, and hence select suitable interventions (i.e., interventions which are within the child’s zone of proximal development) (Lee & Johnston-Wilder, 2013).
The five teachers who demonstrated the highest levels of competence in the conduct of their dynamic math interviews also showed qualitatively good mathematics teaching behavior during the observed mathematics lessons. Nevertheless, there were teachers who showed high scores on teaching behavior but less than adequate dynamic math interviews and teachers who showed adequate dynamic math interviews but low teaching behavior scores. There may be, at most, an indication that math interviewing competence and mathematics teaching competence may somewhat be related, which corresponds to the findings of a previous study by Hoth et al. (2016).
The teacher professional development program used in combination with a practice period involving peer review and reflection on video- recorded dynamic math interview appear to have facilitated the teachers’ ability to follow the dynamic math interview protocol, ask