Output details

Developing Expertise: How Enactivism Re-frames Mathematics Teacher Development

This output was developed into a journal paper after an invitation, because of my enactivist framework that has informed my practice and research for nearly 20 years, to contribute to the ZDM Special Issue related to Teacher expertise. This innovative paper, developed with long-term collaborator Coles, was described by reviewers as changing the landscape and practices in mathematics teacher development and forms part of a collection of our papers that look at how concepts in the teaching and learning of mathematics are seen and enacted through this worldview.

Research questions

What principles inform the practice of supporting teacher development through collaborative groups which include both novices and experts?

What norms for discussion are developed in such a collaborative group?

Methodology

Interrogation of current practice in mathematics education teaching, both pre-service and in-service, at the University of Bristol to distil principles that underpin the effective practices commented on by external examiners.

A collaborative group, funded by the NCETM and focused on the work of Caleb Gattegno had audio-recordings taken of all meetings. A key methodological strategy was to report on a conversation (between the novices identifying common influences in how they had learnt) at the end of the project, then tracking back through the data to see how this happened.

Analysis

For the common experiences, we track back in the data to look for patterns over time. The focus here is on – finding a purpose, using purposes and acting from a purpose, which novices and experts were all able to do.

Means of dissemination

Dissemination is through our practice of teacher education, using collaborative groups for Masters and PGCE work, and, most recently, a collaborative group of PhD students. We wrote a paper that was accepted for the prestigious Task Design ICMI 22 study, which shares and extends these principles.