Session Information
24 SES 09, (Emerging) Professional Development
Paper Session
Contribution
In this presentation I investigate the notion of ‘mathematics teachers as curriculum designers’ from the perspective of teachers’ interactions with (digital) curriculum resources. Based on a literature review on the theme of ‘teachers’ interactions with (digital) curriculum resources’ a first notion of ‘teacher design’ was developed. This was augmented (together with researchers in the respective countries) with case studies on what ‘teacher design’ might mean in different contexts and cultures (e.g. China, England, France, Japan, Netherlands). The aim was (1) to develop a deeper understanding of the concept; and (2) to provide an international perspective and illustrations of the different facets of teacher design.
Using theoretical frameworks of ‘(digital) curriculum resources’ and ‘teacher interactions with (digital) curriculum resources’, it was possible to (1) distinguish different aspects of and define ‘teacher design’, and (2) identify different modes of teacher design: from teacher design activities at micro level (e.g. lesson preparation alone or in small groups), over those at meso level (e.g. D/designing in collectives of colleagues for the purpose of use by others), to Design at macro level (e.g. involvement in the design of national frameworks designed in professional design teams for the use of many others). More generally, it is claimed that the often casually used term of ‘teacher design’ has different meanings in different contexts, and that teacher design activities may be for different purposes, and for different expected end results. A major distinction is whether the design is more oriented towards the process, or the product. It can be argued that the most promising form of teacher design might lie at the crossroads between product and process orientation, with connections between the two. This has implications for teacher education and professionalism.
Method
Two sources of information/data were used: (1) a literature review on the notion of the ‘teacher as curriculum designer’: both in terms of the mathematics education literature, as well as that of curriculum (design) theory; (2) case studies written by colleagues in the respective countries, who were provided with the following questions: (a) Why are teacher design activities relevant? Why would they design?; (b) What would teachers design? What are the most interesting/challenging design tasks?; and (c) How would teachers design? What sorts of design approaches would they use, and under which conditions? These two sets of sources formed the basis for the investigation and analyses, which in turn helped to re-conceptualize ‘teacher design’ and provide illustrations of its different facets in different international contexts.
Expected Outcomes
The first outcome was a (tentative and theoretical) definition of ‘teacher design’ with seven dimensions. Second, what one typically terms as ‘teacher design’ activities can be regarded to lie on the crossroads between two dimensions: the ‘teaming’ dimension (from working alone (single) to working in a collective); and the ‘use’ dimension (from own use (for his/her teaching; site-specific) to use by others (generic)). This helped to identify the following modes: • teacher design activities at micro level (e.g. lesson preparation for own teaching); • teachers d/Designing on their own/alone for use by others (e.g. expert teachers/professional designers) – we could not identify this mode in our cases, although there were often expert teachers involved in collective design; • teacher D/design activities at meso level (e.g. designing in collectives of colleagues); • teacher Design at macro level (e.g. teams of teachers/experts designing for use by others, involvement in the design of national frameworks). Third, the international contexts illustrated that teacher design activities may be for different purposes, and for different expected end results. In the Japanese and Chinese contexts, the design activities were (beyond the immediacy of the lesson) for the purpose of teacher professional development, as an effective means of professional learning, in mathematics/subject teacher collectives (supported predominantly by experts). In the Brazilian, Dutch, English, and French contexts, the purpose of teacher design was for designing an artefact or a product. Hence, in one context the aim was process-orientated, in the other product-orientated, and it could be linked to the mode of design characteristic for the context. We contend that the most promising form of teacher design might lie at the crossroads between product and process orientation, where more connections can be found between the two (what are now often two separate worlds). The implications of this for teacher education and professionalism will be discussed.
References
Ben-Peretz, M. (1990). The teacher-curriculum encounter: Freeing teachers from the tyranny of texts. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Brown, M. W. (2009). The teacher-tool relationship: Theorizing the design and use of curriculum materials. In J. T. Remillard, B. A. Herbel-Eisenmann, & G. M. Lloyd (Eds.), Mathematics teachers at work: Connecting curriculum materials and classroom instruction (pp. 17–36). New York: Routledge. Brown, M. & Edelson, D. (2003) Teaching as design: Can we better understand the ways in which teachers use materials so we can better design materials to support their changes in practice. Evanston, IL: Centre for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools (design brief). Gueudet, G., Pepin, B., Sabra, H., & Trouche, L. (2016). Collective design of an e-textbook: Teachers’ collective documentation. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 19(2), 187–203. Nieveen, N., & van der Hoeven, M. (2011). Building the curricular capacity of teachers: Insights from the Netherlands. In P. Picard & L. Ria (Eds.), Beginning teachers: Challenge for educational systems. CIDREE Yearbook 2011 (pp. 49–64). Lyon: ENS de Lyon, Institut Français de l’Éducation. Pepin, B., Gueudet, G. & Trouche, L. (2017) Refining teacher design capacity: Mathematics teachers’ interactions with digital curriculum resources. ZDM Mathematics Education, 49(5), 799–812. DOI 10.1007/s11858-017-0870-8 Pepin, B., Gueudet, G., & Trouche, L. (2013). Re-sourcing teacher work and interaction: A collective perspective on resource, their use and transformation. ZDM – The International Journal of Mathematics Education, 45(7), 929–943. Van den Akker, J. (2003). Curriculum perspectives: An introduction. In J. van den Akker, W. Kuiper & U. Hameyer (Eds.), Curriculum landscapes and trends (pp. 1–10). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Watanabe, T., Takahashi, A., & Yoshida, M. (2008). Kyozaikenkyu: A critical step for conducting effective lesson study and beyond. In F. Arbaugh & P. M. Taylor (Eds.), Inquiry into mathematics teacher education (AMTE monograph series, Vol. 5, pp. 131–142). San Diego, CA: Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. Yang, Y. (2009) How a Chinese teacher improved classroom teaching in Teaching Research Group: a case study on Pythagoras theorem teaching in Shanghai. ZDM Mathematics Education, 41(3), 279-296.
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