What you expect is what you get: The impact of mathematics teachers' beliefs about students' capabilities on their practice
conference contribution
posted on 2023-05-24, 10:13authored byKim Beswick
This paper draws together evidence obtained from several research projects conducted principally in Tasmania but also in the UK concerning the impact on teaching of differentiated teacher expectations of students’ capabilities. Questionnaire data indicate that teachers hold different views about appropriate curricula and goals of mathematics teaching for different groups of students depending on their perceptions of the students’ abilities, while interviews and observations illustrate the ways in which differing teacher expectations are played out in classrooms. Rather than suggesting simplistic or causal links between teachers’ beliefs and practices, the paper draws on nuanced understandings of the content and structure of teachers’ belief systems. In particular, evidence of the mediating effects of teachers’ beliefs about the relative compliance of students perceived to be of differing abilities on teachers’ pedagogical choices is considered. Implications for students’ opportunities to achieve in the context of the explicitly or implicitly differentiated curricula that result from teachers’ beliefs about them are also examined. The evidence illustrates that improvements in the mathematics achievement of relatively disadvantaged groups of students is dependent upon teachers believing that more is possible. With this in mind the characteristics of two approaches to encouraging desired change are also considered. One of these is a professional learning model instigated by researchers and the other driven by a head of department within a school. The paper will be framed by current understandings of the content and structure of mathematics teachers’ belief systems and of effective professional learning for teachers.
History
Publication title
Proceedings of the 'Narrowing the Gap: Addressing Educational Disadvantage' Conference
Editors
Lorraine Graham
Pagination
121
ISBN
978-1-921597-01-5
Department/School
Faculty of Education
Publisher
The National Centre of Science
Place of publication
NSW, Australia
Event title
SiMERR National Conference: Narrowing the Gap: Addressing Educational Disadvantage