Lucie DeBlois

The Balance of Teacher Knowledge: Mathematics and Pedagogy

Teacher education and the professional development of practicing teachers need to provide a sound basis of knowledge for teaching, theoretically but also with strong ties to issues of practice. Although this seems like a common-sense statement, it is harder to make a reality than expected. At least three factors could account for this difficulty: the sheer complexity of the knowledge required for teaching, the interconnectedness of knowledge, and the fact that teachers’ knowledge comes from different and in certain cases even contradictory sources. Consequently, (a) there is still a lack of comprehensive and categorical descriptions that frame teachers’ knowledge, particularly for content-oriented viewpoints, and (b) there is apparently no broad consensus about the status of that knowledge—is it private knowledge, based on personal experience and only in the personal realm of thinking and acting, or is it knowledge coming from and staying in practice, or is it discursively generated, shared, and general knowledge? In this chapter we describe aspects of the research on the relationship between teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical practices from various perspectives to address the question, “Is there evidence for a systematic interdependent relationship of content and pedagogy?” Such evidence comes from different sources. One can measure both knowledge facets by the means of questionnaires, by directly observing the teaching practice, and by case studies of selected teachers. Learning about both knowledge facets can occur within the teaching practice as such but also from prospective and practicing teacher education. Moreover, teachers learn from practice—from within the teacher’s own practice and from the practice of others as well as from student oral discourse and written productions in their classes.

School Experience During Pre-Service Teacher Education from the Students’ Perspective

A challenge for teacher education is to understand how pre-service teachers learn from experience in multiple contexts- especially when their own schooling, the university methods course, and their practicum experiences can produce conflicting images of teaching. This chapter examines how pre-service teachers interpret their school experiences in the light of their university pre-service courses, their personal histories, knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes, and the specific constraints of the school environment.

The Nature of Knowledge and Creativity in a Technological Context in Music and Mathematics: Implications in Combining Vygotsky and Piaget’s Models

Piaget and Vygotsky’s prolific work continues to inspire many researchers in several areas of education. While these two authors are often referred to concurrently, sometimes as antagonists and sometimes as complementary theories from a developmental perspective, the debates regarding their epistemological stand and the interpretation of their research remain open. We propose a transdisciplinary approach to combining these two views of learning. Based on the results of two studies bringing technology and creativity together in music and mathematical education, we more specifically examine the transformation that occurs in knowledge when using technologies as a creative process for learners.