Observed Quality of Formative Peer and Self-Assessment in Everyday Mathematics Teaching and its Effects on Student Performance

<p style="text-align: justify;">The positive effect of peer assessment and self-assessment strategies on learners' performance has been widely confirmed in experimental or quasi-experimental studies. However, whether peer and self-assessment within everyday mathematics teaching affect student learning and achievement, has rarely been studied. This study aimed to determine with what quality peer and self-assessment occur in everyday mathematics instruction and whether and which students benefit from it in terms of achievement and the learning process. Two lessons on division were video-recorded and rated to determine the quality of peer and self-assessment. Six hundred thirty-four students of fourth-grade primary school classes in German-speaking Switzerland participated in the study and completed a performance test on division. Multilevel analyses showed no general effect of the quality of peer or self-assessment on performance. However, high-quality self-assessment was beneficial for lower-performing students, who used a larger repertoire of calculation strategies, which helped them perform better. In conclusion, peer and self-assessment in real-life settings only have a small effect on the student performance in this Swiss study.</p>

Challenging Malawian primary teachers' views on mathematics teaching and learning through lesson study

PurposeThe aim of the study is to better understand how lesson study (LS) contributes to challenging teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning.Design/methodology/approachThis study is part of a wider ongoing project aiming at improving primary mathematics teaching in Malawi through professional development (PD) of teachers using a LS model. The units being analyzed are teachers' written reflections and lesson plans. The analytical approach is qualitative content analysis.FindingsInitially, the participating Malawian primary teachers report traditional views of mathematics teaching and learning. After having participated in a LS cycle, they reported on the need to work on how to involve and create space for learners' participation in mathematic lessons and highlight the importance for learners to discover mathematics on their own.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a small-scale study due to LS being quite new in the Malawian context and the need to test before possible upscaling.Practical implicationsThe paper includes a description on how LS might contribute to challenging Malawian teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning; this can be valuable information for others who are attempting to use LS in a similar context.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to learn more about how LS might contribute to challenging teachers' views of mathematics teaching and learning worldwide.

Self-confidence attitude of novice primary teachers reflection on teaching mathematics

The teacher’s attitude towards mathematics teaching is seen as an essential factor in forming students’ attitudes towards mathematics. However, no one has extensively described the reflection of teachers’ self-confidence in teaching mathematics, especially for novice primary teachers. Therefore, the purpose of this study sought to describe a reflection of the self-confidence attitude of novice primary teachers in teaching mathematics. A questionnaire based on novice primary teachers’ teaching experience was administered to a total of 28 novice primary teachers (N = 22 males, N = 6 females) conveniently selected to participate in the study reported in this article. The semi-structured interviews data explored novice primary teachers’ reflections on the given questionnaire scale items. The qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews informed the quantitative information extracted from the questionnaires. The results showed that the reflection of the self-confidence attitude of novice primary teachers in low, moderate, and high participants on the scale of confidence in teaching mathematics raises three essential findings, specifically (1) ability on content knowledge, (2) ability to explain, and (3) ability in classroom management. The resulting reflection in low, moderate, and high participants on the scale was an attitude toward success in teaching mathematics, namely, the appraisal of others, and on the scale, the usefulness of mathematics teaching, namely the ability to understand the usefulness of mathematics.

Promoting Equity in Elementary School Mathematics

This chapter describes the frameworks of mathematics tasks, equity-based mathematics teaching practices, technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK), and how they relate to teaching for equity in virtual learning environments (VLE). The frameworks are used to describe vignettes from VLEs with elementary school learners and elementary school teacher candidates (future teachers). Implications of these vignettes include a need for an empirically based trajectory related to equity-based teaching practices as well as a need to consider which technologies in a VLE can be used to effectively promote equity-based mathematics teaching practices.