Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Inservice teachers’ attributions for mathematical success.
Beliefs teachers hold influence the judgments they make about their students, and opportunities they provide for engaging them in rigorous mathematics. While math-related beliefs have been widely studied, less is known about teachers’ attributional beliefs (i.e., beliefs about people’s actions or behaviors) for mathematical success. In this study we investigated in-service elementary teachers’ stated beliefs about mathematical success. Findings show that teachers attribute mathematical success to factors that are both internal and external to the student. Although teachers explicitly stated that race and gender were not factors, many used descriptors that served as proxies for students’ demographic markers.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2200990
PAR ID:
10429870
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the 45nd Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the forty-fifth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)
    Lamberg, Teruni; Moss, Diana L (Ed.)
    We investigate the beliefs that influence middle and high school algebra teachers’ appraisals of contextual problems having diverse mathematical and pedagogical features. We asked six teachers to analyze six contextual algebra tasks and indicate how they would apportion instructional time among the six tasks based on their structure, pedagogical features, and connections to the real world. We recorded small-group discussions in which teachers shared their responses to this activity, and qualitatively analyzed their discussions for evidence of beliefs that influenced their appraisals of the tasks. The teachers’ beliefs about contextual problems attended to task authenticity, opportunities for mathematical activity, obligations of tasks, and pedagogy and access. Our preliminary findings can inform future efforts to equip teachers with contextual tasks that develop students’ algebraic reasoning and problem solving. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the 42nd Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)
    Sacristán, A.I.; Cortés-Zavala, J.C.; Ruiz-Arias, P.M. (Ed.)
    Teachers in the elementary grades often teach all subjects and are expected to have appropriate content knowledge of a wide range of disciplines. Current recommendations suggest teachers should integrate multiple disciplines into the same lesson, for instance, when teaching integrated STEM lessons. Although there are many similarities between STEM fields, there are also epistemological differences to be understood by students and teachers. This study investigated teachers’ beliefs about teaching mathematics and science using argumentation and the epistemological and contextual factors that may have influenced these beliefs. Teachers’ beliefs about different epistemological underpinnings of mathematics and science, along with contextual constraints, led to different beliefs and intentions for practice with respect to argumentation in these disciplines. The contextual constraint of testing and the amount of curriculum the teachers perceived as essential focused more attention on the teaching of mathematics, which could be seen as benefiting student learning of mathematics. On the other hand, the perception of science as involving wonder, curiosity, and inherently positive and interesting ideas may lead to the creation of a more positive learning environment for the teaching of science. These questions remain open and need to be studied further: What are the consequences of perceiving argumentation in mathematics as limited to concepts already well-understood? Can integrating the teaching of mathematics and science lead to more exploratory and inquiry-based teaching of mathematical ideas alongside scientific ones? 
    more » « less
  3. ; (, Teaching and Teacher Education)
    A teacher survey (N = 290) based on the social reasoning developmental model investigated (1) beliefs and values about using class time for discussing discrimination and reported frequency of discussing discrimination based on different social identities and (2) factors predicting teachers’ frequency for discussing racial discrimination in the classroom. Most participants reported beliefs that all five identities were worth discussing in class, yet teachers most strongly believed that wealth, race, and native language affect students’ education. Higher beliefs that prejudice can change, school support, and beliefs that race affects students’ education predicted higher teacher reports for talking about racial discrimination. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, CBE—Life Sciences Education)
    Instructors’ beliefs about their students’ abilities (called “lay theories”) and student perceptions of instructors’ beliefs impact students’ outcomes. Lay theories include three beliefs: mindset (improvability of intelligence), universality (distribution of potential for achieving high ability), and brilliance (whether talent is required for success). There is growing literature explaining how instructors’ mindset beliefs affect students, but little is known about instructors’ universality and brilliance beliefs, despite evidence that all three beliefs uniquely impact student outcomes. Our qualitative study (1) characterizes the content and mechanism of instructor messages that inform students’ perceptions of instructors’ beliefs and (2) compares how different beliefs are communicated. We interviewed 24 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) undergraduates about how they perceive their instructors’ beliefs. We identified four themes of content of instructor messages that communicate beliefs: affordances for success, goal orientations, distribution of achievement, and attributions for performance. We identified three mechanisms through which these messages are communicated: statements, actions, and course structure and policies. We also found that students assume their instructors’ beliefs based on instructor, class, or institution characteristics, or their own beliefs. Students use all the message contents and mechanisms to infer all three beliefs, though not in equal frequencies. Our results provide practical implications to enhance instructor–student communication. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education)
    Cook, S; Katz, B; MooreRusso, D (Ed.)
    The relevance of upper division mathematics courses for future secondary teachers is a longstanding thorny issue. Suggested improvements include capstone courses and revised upper division content courses to explicitly address future teachers’ relevant secondary mathematics content knowledge, beliefs about teaching and learning, and experience with learning mathematics while engaging in authentic mathematical practices. In this report, we investigate prospective teachers’ reflections on their opportunities in an upper division Inquiry-Oriented Dynamical Systems course to engage in the eight Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice. Analysis of students’ self-reported engagement in the eight Practices revealed five practices that strongly resonated with them and the various ways that their experiences in an inquiry-oriented classroom supported meaningful and powerful engagement in these Mathematical Practices. We conclude with implications for practice. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Text Encoded Conversion
  • XML
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email