Page 168 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews

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Chapter 5
progress more than that in the control group. As a possible result of the dynamic math interview professional development program and practice, teachers may better recognize the complexity of mathematical problem-solving and what is required to effectively teach it.
The dynamic math interviews may have contributed to the ability of the teachers in our study to understand why some mathematics skills constitute a stumbling block for certain children and/or certain domains of mathematics. This information may have proved useful, in turn, for identifying just how they can better meet the needs of these children. In other words, the adequate conduct of dynamic math assessment in the form of a dynamic math interview appears to be particularly promising for identifying the specific math learning needs of individual children (also see Caffrey et al., 2008).
Study strengths, limitations, and directions for future research
A strength of the present research is the involvement of the same teachers in the control and experimental conditions (years 1 and 2). The involvement of the same teachers allowed us to control for variables which might otherwise influence the reliability of our results (e.g., possible cohort effects, teaching style). Another strength is the involvement of teachers and children coming from a variety of schools in the Netherlands, which suggests that our results are fairly representative. Another strength is that the video-recordings and observations were done in the real school setting and the dynamic math interviews conducted with children in their own school contexts.
We created what appears to be a useful teacher professional development program with the focus on dynamic math interviews. Furthermore, we developed a scripted tool for the conduct of dynamic math interviews that can presumably be used in all domains of mathematics and with all children. The tools proved reliable enough for more widespread use and examination on a larger scale. Furthermore, an analytic framework was clearly articulated and developed to facilitate the qualitative analyses of the dynamic math interviews conducted by the teachers. Further refinement of the framework is nevertheless needed. For example, adequacy of responding or, in other words, responding which is well-timed and allows the child to