What factors support or inhibit secondary mathematics pre-service teachers’ implementation of problem-solving tasks during professional experience?

ABSTRACT

There is an acknowledged gap between the theory presented in university preparation programmes and the reality of classroom practice that has resulted in many secondary mathematics pre-service teachers failing to implement university-endorsed teaching strategies. Using responses to a questionnaire and interviews, this qualitative study examined the factors that support or inhibit secondary mathematics pre-service teachers’ implementation of problem-solving tasks during professional experience. The results showed that even though the majority of pre-service teachers reported having beliefs compatible with using problem-solving tasks, the secondary students’ ability, preparation time, and the cooperating teacher were key factors that inhibited pre-service teachers’ implementation of problem-solving tasks. It is recommended that pre-service teachers regularly visit classrooms to observe the evolving implementation of problem-solving approaches. Furthermore, cooperating teachers should be required to attend professional development before the professional experience so they understand the goals of the university preparation programme and have the requisite skills and knowledge to support the implementation of problem-solving tasks in learning mathematics.

KEYWORDS:

• Beliefs
• cooperating teacher
• pre-service
• problem solving
• professional experience
• secondary mathematics
• theory-practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jake Little

Jake Little is a Mathematics Teacher at Wenona School, Sydney. He graduated in Science (Mathematics) and with The University Medal in Education from The University of Sydney.

Judy Anderson is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at The University of Sydney. She is a graduate in Science and PhD in Education.