Hélia Oliveira

Development of Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers' Professional Knowledge and Identity in Working with Information and Communication Technology

This paper describes the workundertaken in a course in communication andinformation technology in a pre-service programfor secondary school mathematics teachers. Thiscourse aimed to help pre-service teachersdevelop a positive attitude regarding ICT anduse it confidently. It focused on theexploration of educational software and of theInternets potential as a means of research andproduction of web sites. We discuss how thepre-service mathematics teachers evaluate theirwork concerning their commitment, difficultiesthey found, learning they identified, andpersonal relationship. We also analyse theeffects of the course on the development oftheir professional knowledge and identity.

Opportunities to Develop Algebraic Thinking in Elementary Grades Throughout the School Year in the Context of Mathematics Curriculum Changes

This chapter intends to illustrate and discuss one developmental project in the context of basic education curriculum changes concerning the early introduction of algebraic thinking on classroom instruction in one fourth grade class. From a more general point of view, this discussion centers on the relationship between the official, planned, enacted, and learned curriculum. Different aspects of these dimensions of the curriculum are exemplified from the analysis of some mathematical tasks and instances of the mathematical communication processes that took place in the classroom throughout one school year.

Developing Statistical Literacy (DSL): Student Learning and Teacher Education

Recent mathematics curriculum orientations stress the importance of developing students’ statistical literacy at different school levels. Many students can read and understand tables, charts, and graphs and perform the procedures to find statistical measures, but they miss the conceptual abilities to interpret and draw conclusions from graphs, or to make decisions on which calculation is appropriate to study a particular situation (Shaughnessy, 2007). In Portugal, the mathematics syllabus for basic education which started in 2010 presented more demanding learning objectives for statistics. This was a challenging situation for teachers requiring them to develop new perspectives and professional knowledge, since many of them did not have a suitable preparation in statistics. In this context, we planned a project aiming to construct knowledge about statistical literacy development, with two main foci: (1) the characterization of students’ statistical literacy from preschool to secondary levels, and the possibilities and constraints for its development, and (2) the development of teachers’ statistical and didactical knowledge for teaching in in-service and preservice teacher education settings. A review of literature supported both the planning and development of teaching experiments in classrooms at different school levels, based on sequences of tasks and the use of technological tools and the planning of courses in preservice education of educators and elementary school teachers and in-service teacher education, as well as creating contexts of collaborative work with teachers. The project used a design research methodology in teaching and teacher education experiments. Data was collected by a variety of methods including interviews, classroom observations, students’ written work, tests, and questionnaires. Data analysis included mainly qualitative approaches.

Inquiry-Based Mathematics Teaching: The Case of Célia

This chapter discusses the instructional practice of a primary school teacher. It is based on a framework that we developed in the project “Professional Practices of Mathematics Teachers”, which relates the teacher’s intentions to her actions in an inquiry-based mathematics classroom. The framework covers the promotion of mathematics learning as well as the class management. It details the instructional actions of the teacher in terms of the launching of the mathematical task to the students, the support of the students’ work, the orchestration of the discussion of the task and the systematization of the mathematical learning process.