Attitudes towards Diverse Learners (original) (raw)

Diversity-aware teaching of mathematics: an explorative study on pre-service teachers' views

2022

Preparing future teachers to be aware of students' diversity and enabling them to teach responsively in order to create equal opportunities is considered an important part of teacher education. Realizing this for mathematics education is commonly associated to various approaches to promote equity. In this contribution, we focus on the innate views of pre-service teachers on diversity-aware teaching of mathematics to investigate their initial understanding. We present an explorative study that surveyed the views of 105 primary school pre-service teachers by means of a questionnaire. Those views were categorized by a qualitative content analysis. The results show that pre-service teachers most likely want to be and act aware of diversity when teaching, but rarely show sensitivity or knowledge of the particularities of school mathematics.

Mathematics Learning and Diverse Students

2015

This literature review synthesizes the research on issues of mathematics teaching, learning, and achievement for students from marginalized groups, including Black students, Latina/o students, English language learners, and poor students. In Part 1, we outline national trends in mathematics achievement and learning for students in these groups. In Part 2, we describe what we know about the extent to which students in these groups are provided access to high-quality mathematics instruction and we detail some of the challenges these students face. In Part 3, we summarize what existing research tells us about effective instruction for equity in mathematics, and the necessary conditions at the district, school, and department levels to support such instruction. We also consider the implications for schools; what can schools do to better support equity in mathematics learning outcomes? Throughout, we will consider the case of one school that developed an equity pedagogy in mathematics, R...

PRESERVICE TEACHERS' BELIEFS ABOUT MATHEMATICAL UNDERSTANDING

Thirteen preservice middle school mathematics teachers from a four-year teacher education program in Turkey were interviewed about their beliefs related to mathematical understanding. The analysis yielded four components of mathematical understanding with various subcomponents: Content, reasoning, applications, and procedures. The competitiveness of high school background seemed to have an effect on participants' beliefs about mathematical understanding. Participants from the most competitive high school background seemed to have richer conceptions of mathematical understanding.

Comparing Teachers' Conceptions of Mathematics Education and Student Diversity at Highly Effective and Typical Elementary Schools

2009

In this study, the authors examined what distinguished highly effective from typical elementary schools in mathematics by examining the conceptions of fourth-grade teachers with regards to mathematics education (curriculum, instruction, and assessment) and student diversity (ability, culture, language, and socioeconomic status). The study was conducted in two large urban areas with high proportions of racially/ethnically and linguistically diverse student groups. Interviews were conducted with 32 fourth-grade teachers from 16 elementary schools, including 10 highly effective and 6 typical schools in the two areas. Compelling evidence was found that teachers at highly effective schools had better developed and better articulated conceptions of mathematics education and student diversity. While similar findings were found across the two areas (e.g., teachers' beliefs about the influence of high-stakes assessment and the academic ability of low-achieving students), differences were...

Multicultural Mathematics Dispositions: A Framework to Unveil Dispositions to Teach Culturally Diverse Students

2016

We used the Multicultural Mathematics Dispositions (MCMD) framework to analyze preservice teachers’ (PSTs) dispositions to teach diverse student populations during a cultural awareness unit in a mathematics methods course. The framework is defined as a function of three constructs: openness, self-awareness/self-reflectiveness, and commitment to culturally relevant mathematics teaching. We selected two assignments from the unit as our data sources. Using the framework, we analyzed the ways in which PSTs expressed any of the MCMD constructs in each of the assignments. Our analysis found that self-awareness/self-reflectiveness was the most common dispositional construct expressed by the PSTs, which led to their openness. However, few PSTs committed to using culturally relevant pedagogy in their future classrooms. Additional coursework may be needed to prepare PSTs to teach culturally diverse student populations.