Page 136 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews

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Chapter 4
and perceived mathematics teaching self-efficacy and mathematical knowledge for teaching may be related to teachers’ mathematics teaching practice. This is consistent with Wilkins (2008) and Charalambous (2015), who suggest that perceptions and knowledge interact to influence mathematics teaching behavior.
Study strengths, limitations, and directions for future research
The strength of this study lies, in part, in its longitudinal design. It covered two school years, involved the same teacher participants throughout the duration and reached across a variety of primary educational contexts (22 elementary schools, of varying sizes and varying populations, spread across the country). Moreover, it explored the associations between a particular intervention focused on learning and practice of teacher-child dynamic math interviews and teacher factors within the context of elementary mathematics education. Participation of the same teachers throughout allowed us to control variables which might otherwise influence reliability. Because of the quasi-experimental study design involving the same teachers during two years, no control group of teachers could be involved. Furthermore, the last measurement was taken shortly after the intervention period. A follow-up study could explore whether or not the recorded results are sustainable.
The present study is a first attempt to uncover the potential of a dynamic math interview professional development program as well as its practical application. To more broadly apply the findings, additional replication studies involving more teachers and a control group of teachers are needed. Although a small teacher sample size is common in studies which use classroom observations and coded videos as part of the intervention, it may limit the use of the findings.
While we kept in touch with the heads of school throughout the study, emphasizing the need for them to support teacher participation, we did not take into account school contextual conditions such as the role of the school leader, demographics, or professional school culture (Opfer & Pedder, 2011). It would be useful to investigate if and how these influence teacher factors within the context of effective mathematics teaching in future studies.