Tools for MathematicsTeacher Educators’ Professional Growth: Conceptualising Inquiry Opportunities for Representations of Teacher Education Practice
Keywords:
mathematics teacher education research, representations of practice, mathematics teacher educators, practical measures, video-stimulated recall conversationAbstract
Ongoing professional growth is central to Mathematics Teacher Educators’ (MTEs) work, yet they often lack tools to systematically inquire into and learn from their own practice. This multiple case study investigates how two distinct representations of practice — a video-based Video Stimulated Recall Conversation (VSRC) and a survey-based Collaborative Professional Development Survey (CPDS)—support MTEs in inquiring into their own professional practice. Drawing on the semiotic infrastructure for practice framework, we examined how MTEs reflected on practice across two contexts involving prospective teachers: a video-club in Israel, using the VSRC, and an academic course in the United States (U.S.), using the CPDS. Findings show that both tools surfaced common problems of practice, such as time management and balancing facilitator input, while highlighting different dimensions. The VSRC, by foregrounding temporality and the visibility of specific interactions, illuminated real-time decision-making, specific linguistic choices, and gestures. The CPDS, in contrast, revealed teachers’ perspectives and patterns of change over time, offering candid feedback through anonymity. Notably, both tools did not provide artefacts of teacher learning. The study contributes considerations for selecting and designing representations for MTEs' professional growth, underscoring the value of combining multiple, complementary tools that highlight different facets of practice.
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