Atara Shriki

Perceptions of Israeli mathematics teachers regarding their professional development needs

Recent reforms in mathematics education have increased the need for teachers to attend professional development programs. In order to motivate teachers to attend such programs and to maximize their effect on teachers’ development, we believe it is important to adapt the contents of such programs to teachers’ perceived needs. The current study was designed to explore the professional needs of Israeli mathematics teachers, as they perceived them. Our results show that teachers are mainly concerned with developing their mathematical knowledge and acquiring knowledge that relates to the way in which students comprehend various mathematical concepts. However, these concerns stem from different positions that can be attributed to their teaching experience: new teachers appear to be self-centered; therefore their concern with developing their knowledge might be a result of a need to gain self-confidence. More experienced teachers are able to consider the effect of their teaching on students’ learning, and it appears that their wish to acquire knowledge stems from this perspective. Highly experienced teachers, like new teachers, are also self-centered, believing they know everything about teaching and learning, and therefore express interest in acquiring knowledge merely for satisfying their own curiosity.

Logic in Wonderland: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as the Context of a Course in Logic for Future Elementary Teachers

The teaching experiment described in this chapter assumes at the outset that children’s literature can be a useful context for teaching elementary ideas of logic while bridging the gap between the abstractness of formal logic and its expression in a real world context. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll (a unique combination of a logician and a story teller) was chosen for this purpose, based upon a careful examination of its potential. Inspired by The Annotated Alice (Carroll 2000), over 75 additional annotations to Carroll’s book were developed, having in mind their employment in an introductory course in logic for prospective elementary school teachers specializing in mathematics. These annotations are in four categories: Logic, Mathematics, General education, and Science. Sample annotations are included. This chapter describes the tasks and activities developed for the course. Data collection instruments were interwoven in the teaching materials development. A sample is included as well. Several results are reported and discussed.

Elementary school mathematics teachers’ perception of their professional needs

This study explored Israeli elementary school mathematics teachers’ perceptions of their professional needs, with the purpose of developing in-service training courses which cater to these needs. Eighty-four teachers responded to the questionnaire and were interviewed. The results indicate that the respondents’ main needs are associated with strengthening their didactical knowledge capability of dealing with emotional aspects that relate to pupils’ learning of mathematics. Although most of the respondents lack formal mathematics education, they attribute less importance to their need to enhance knowledge in the field. In light of Israeli pupils’ relatively low attainments in mathematics, the authors believe that the education system should require teachers to expand their mathematics knowledge and that only teachers with appropriate knowledge will be permitted to teach the discipline.