A Resource Approach to Mathematics Teacher Education

Abstract

The research presented in this dissertation addresses the disconnect between university coursework and school placement, as experienced by pre-service mathematics teachers (PSTs). In their educational trajectory, PSTs assume two roles with contrasting ‘scripts’ (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999): the role of being students themselves and the role of being (novice) teachers (Sødal, 2023, p. 2). As the PSTs transition between the contexts of university coursework and school placement, they participate in practices with different and sometimes contrasting expectations for and approaches to teaching mathematics (Goos, 2009). Concurrently, the PSTs are expected to learn from consolidating the experiences from university coursework and school placement. PSTs themselves, however, tend to view the two experiences as separate from each other and regard practical experiences as superior to theoretical aspects in their teacher education (Brekke & Leikvoll Eide, 2021; Solomon et al., 2017; Sødal, 2022). Moreover, Norwegian teacher education has been criticised for polarity between theory and praxis and there is a call for teacher education programmes to better prepare PSTs for the teaching profession (Mosvold et al., 2018). This study reports on the process of developing a Resource Bank for teaching mathematics for seven PSTs. The inquiry explores in what ways a Resource Bank for teaching mathematics can mediate between the PSTs’ experiences in coursework and school placement, thereby breaching the boundary (Sødal, 2023) between the two sites and supporting the PSTs’ learning across contexts. The dissertation consists of four papers, each addressing the following four research questions: 1. What aspects of working with resources in university coursework do pre-service mathematics teachers accentuate as beneficial in preparing them for teaching mathematics in elementary school? 2. In what ways can a networked understanding support the exploration of the potential of a Resource Bank for teaching mathematics? 3. How does the proposed analytical framework composed of DAD and Valsiner’s zone theory elucidate how the RB mediates the PSTs’ learning as they move between university coursework and school placement? 4. In what ways does the documentational genesis of a Resource Bank for teaching mathematics support pre-service mathematics teachers in breaching the boundary between experiences in university coursework and school placement? A theoretical framework for studying the Resource Bank has been developed through networking the documentational approach to didactics (Gueudet & Trouche, 2009) and Valsiner’s zone theory (Valsiner, 1997). By applying the strategy of ‘combining’ (Prediger et al., 2008), the framework provided constructs that facilitated the analysis of the PSTs’ interaction with the Resource Bank through different contexts. The findings illustrate how a Resource Bank for teaching mathematics can mediate between university-based experiences and school-based experiences for PSTs. Three mediating properties of the Resource Bank have been highlighted: 1. The RB mediates between the PSTs and their own schemes (for teaching mathematics) 2. The RB mediates between coursework and school placement when schemes for teaching mathematics are tested and revised 3. The RB mediates between theoretical and practical aspects of teaching mathematics through entry-slips (Sødal, 2024, p. 16) Thus, it is concluded that a Resource Bank for teaching mathematics can breach the boundary between the two sites and support PSTs’ learning across contexts.