Page 112 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews

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Chapter 4
underlying procedures and strategies as well as their beliefs and emotions regarding mathematics (Allsopp et al., 2008; Ginsburg, 2009). In order to meet the different educational needs of diverse learners, three teacher factors have been identified as essential (Kaiser et al., 2017). The first is effective teaching behavior during mathematics lessons (e.g., Anthony & Walshaw, 2009). The second is teachers’ self- efficacy regarding mathematics teaching, i.e., their beliefs in own capabilities to influence child’s learning, achievement and engagement (e.g., Chang, 2015). The third is teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching, including deep knowledge of content and the knowledge and
skills specific to teaching mathematics (e.g., Hill et al., 2008).
The current study investigated whether a teacher professional development program focused on dynamic math interviews helps teachers better execute such interviews with respect to identifying children’s math learning needs. Furthermore, it has yet to be established whether teacher-child dynamic math interviews are related to other classroom teaching factors such as mathematics teaching behavior, teachers’ sense of mathematics teaching self-efficacy and teachers’
beliefs in their mathematical knowledge for teaching.
Dynamic math interviews as cornerstone to identify child needs and foster mathematics teaching
The need for teachers to measure the developmental potential of children – not only their present ability – has led to dynamic mathematics assessment approaches closely linked to contemporary conceptions of learning and mathematics education (e.g., Ginsburg, 2009; Jeltova et al., 2007). Pellegrino et al. (2001) designed a learning assessment model consisting of three elements that needed to be connected by the teacher. The first was the way in which children represented knowledge and developed subject domain competence (cognition). The second involved teachers observing children’s performance (observation). The third required teachers to analyze data based on child interactions with specific domain tasks (interpretation). A dynamic mathematics assessment fulfills all these requirements. It is flexible and process-oriented and enables teachers to obtain information about diverse children’ thinking and conceptual