Papers by Alison Castro Superfine
Informing Instruction Design: Examining Elementary Preservice Teachers' Strategies in a Partitive Quotient Problem
Informing Instruction Design: Examining Elementary Preservice Teachers' Strategies in a Partitive Quotient Problem
Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Jun 25, 2021
Mathematics Learning and Teaching in Rural Communities: Some Research Issues
From Mathematical Tasks to Research–Practice Partnerships: A Look at Edward Silver’s Influence on Our Efforts at Mathematics Instructional Improvement
Research in mathematics education, 2023
Interacting and Intersecting Contexts of Teacher Learning
Routledge eBooks, Jul 19, 2022
International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Oct 1, 2011
While understanding children's mathematical thinking is an important part of what teachers need t... more While understanding children's mathematical thinking is an important part of what teachers need to know in order to be effective in the classroom, preservice coursework often fails to provide learning opportunities focused on this aspect of teaching. Using a videocase curriculum focused on children's mathematical thinking, the authors examined changes in preservice elementary teachers' knowledge of, beliefs about, and ability to analyze children's thinking. Results from a quasi-experimental study indicate that the videocase curriculum had little effect on participants' knowledge and ability to analyze children's thinking, yet a moderate effect on participants' beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning. Research points to the importance of attending to children's mathematical thinking as an important aspect of what teachers need to know (Carpenter et al., 1989). Despite the centrality of children's thinking to teachers' mathematical knowledge, there exists little research involving preservice teachers' (PSTs) learning about children's mathematical thinking, with few exceptions (e.g., Philipp et al., 2007). Such research provides evidence that PSTs, if given opportunities to closely study children's mathematical thinking in the form of video clips, can further their own mathematical knowledge in relation to children's thinking (e.g., Philipp et al., 2007). This study builds on and extends the extant research by examining how the design and implementation of a videocase curriculum supported PSTs' ability to analyze children's mathematical thinking. Specifically, the authors discuss findings from a quasi-experimental study of PSTs' engagement with the videocases in a required mathematics content course across two semesters, focusing on changes in PSTs' knowledge of, beliefs about, and ability to analyze children's mathematical thinking. The authors administered in both semesters a pre-and post-test using a mathematics content knowledge assessment instrument developed to measure mathematical knowledge for teaching, a pre-and post-test using the Integrating Mathematics and Pedagogy (IMAP) Beliefs survey, and a pre-and post-test video activity developed by the authors.
Issues in Teacher Education, May 1, 2014
What is needed to prepare teachers to effectively teach mathematics has been the subject of consi... more What is needed to prepare teachers to effectively teach mathematics has been the subject of considerable debate for at least two decades (Brown, Cooney, & Jones, 1990; Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, 2001, 2012), with the focus shifting back and forth between the number of mathematics courses that teachers need to the mathematics content that teachers need to know (Ball, Thames, & Phelps, 2008). Building upon previous work related to teacher knowledge (Shulman, 1986), some researchers have reconceptualized mathematics content knowledge and have argued that teachers need to know not only the ways that mathematics is used in applied contexts and other professions, e.g., using percentages to compute amounts of discounts, but also the ways required exclusively for teaching, e.g., evaluating the validity of the mathematics in solution methods (Ball et al., 2008; Hill & Ball, 2004). Nevertheless, we know little about what mathematics teacher educators, the individuals who are primarily responsible for the mathematical preparation of teachers, should know. Building on our work as part of a two-year professional development project for mathematics teacher educators, and drawing from research
Fidelity of implementation: bringing written curriculum materials into the equation
Curriculum Journal, Jan 2, 2015
Fidelity of curriculum implementation (FOI) is an important area of research because of the criti... more Fidelity of curriculum implementation (FOI) is an important area of research because of the critical role it plays in understanding how and why curriculum materials work and how they can be improved. This analysis explores written features within the Math Trailblazers curriculum that may influence the ways teachers implement mathematics curriculum materials. In particular, we examine FOI data from prior research in order to identify features within the materials themselves that may influence why teachers adhere to the intended curriculum to varying degrees. This paper reports on our analysis of examining five whole number lessons previously analysed for level of FOI alongside an analysis scale of written curriculum features. Our purpose in this analysis is to examine features of the written curriculum that potentially mediate teachers’ implementation of the materials in line with the intended curriculum. In doing so, our analysis further emphasises the critical role teachers play in curriculum implementation, and thus may provide some insight for curriculum developers as they consider ways in which to design the written curriculum that increase the likelihood that teachers will adhere to the intended curriculum.
Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Sep 30, 2016
This descriptive case study examines six mathematics teacher educators' (MTEs) perspectives on th... more This descriptive case study examines six mathematics teacher educators' (MTEs) perspectives on their design of content courses for elementary preservice teachers. By focusing on MTE's design goals and considerations for their mathematics content courses, the means by which they achieved these course design goals, and the challenges they encountered as they carried out their design goals, this study adds to the image of mathematics content courses, and sheds light on the work of MTEs. Our findings indicate that MTEs design content courses that take a learner-centered approach to instruction and that in designing learner-centered content courses, MTEs face a variety of challenges. Implications for the professional development of MTEs are discussed.
Prospective teachers’ noticing: A literature review of methodological approaches to support and analyze noticing
Teaching and Teacher Education, Mar 1, 2021
Abstract This systematic literature review highlights consistencies and differences in methodolog... more Abstract This systematic literature review highlights consistencies and differences in methodological processes of research focused on prospective teacher noticing. Six-hundred-eleven articles were initially identified; 43 of those were analyzed in depth. Of the anaylzed articles, researchers primarily used one of two frameworks for noticing (i.e. Professional Noticing or Learning to Notice). Despite some methodological similarities, researchers used different time durations for learning experiences and measured noticing at different intervals. Analysis of study results indicate that many researchers found mixed or neutral participant outcomes for developing noticing. Researchers using the Learning to Notice Framework reported positive results more often than researchers using the Professional Noticing Framework.
Exploring the Mathematical Knowledge Needed for Teaching Teachers
Journal of Teacher Education, May 12, 2014
The purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge demands of teacher educators as they teach ... more The purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge demands of teacher educators as they teach disciplinary content to preservice elementary teachers, specifically in mathematics, and to understand how such knowledge is different from that used by K-12 teachers. Drawing from a database including teaching and learning artifacts from five iterations of a content course for preservice teachers, the authors illustrate different forms of knowledge observed across different mathematics teacher educators’ practice and discuss how the observed knowledge forms are different from knowledge used by K-12 teachers in their practice. Finally, the authors discuss how the process used in this study can identify potential components of a knowledge base for teacher education.
Eurasia journal of mathematics, science and technology education, Oct 31, 2018
Despite the growing research base on preservice teacher noticing of children's mathematical think... more Despite the growing research base on preservice teacher noticing of children's mathematical thinking in video, few, if any studies consider the complex nature of the video representations themselves. Drawing from cognitive load theory, we developed a rubric to code the complexity of the salient teaching and learning events captured in video, and analyzed the relationship between video complexity and preservice teacher (n = 233) noticing. Results indicate that two categories significantly highlight children's mathematical thinking and two categories significantly mask children's mathematical thinking for preservice teachers. We discuss the implications of these results for the design of our instructional platform and other video-based learning environments used in preservice teacher education settings.
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Feb 24, 2015
The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons At... more The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY).
Broadening Perspectives on Mathematics Thinking and Learning. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (35th, Chicago, Illinois, November 14-17, 2013)
International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Nov 1, 2013
Teacher–Researcher Collaborative Inquiry in Mathematics Teaching Practices
Routledge eBooks, Jul 19, 2022
Teacher Learning in Changing Contexts
Routledge eBooks, Jul 19, 2022
Micro-analysis of noticing: a lens on prospective teachers’ trajectories of learning to notice
ZDM – Mathematics Education, 2021
Micro-analysis of noticing is introduced as a method to analyze prospective teacher noticing, one... more Micro-analysis of noticing is introduced as a method to analyze prospective teacher noticing, one that privileges the high variation exhibited by novice learners. The intent was to understand how prospective teachers’ noticing moments suggest trajectories within and across whole-class discussions. We also focused on how prospective teachers’ responses suggest individual trajectories of noticing in these discussions. We examined prospective teachers’ engagement with a videocase curriculum in a mathematics content course in a teacher preparation program in the US. We contrast prospective teachers’ development of noticing using commonly employed analytic methods in noticing research and discuss the limitations of these methods for characterizing prospective (novice) teacher development of noticing. Findings illustrate how a micro-analysis of noticing as an analytic method illuminates nuanced patterns of prospective teacher noticing in their development of learning to notice in both whole-class and individual scenarios.
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Papers by Alison Castro Superfine