A Descriptive Study about Specialty of Mathematics Teachers in Unit Development: Using Autoethnography and the Analysis Matrix for Unit Development Process
2016 Volume 22 Issue 2 Pages 97-107
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2016 Volume 22 Issue 2 Pages 97-107
The purpose of this paper is to describe what qualities and abilities that I have as an experienced mathematics teacher are displayed and how they function in the process of teaching unit development.
I analyzed a journal in Research in Mathematics Education Vol. 14 published by Japan Society of Mathematical Education, of which I am the first author. I used SCAT (Steps for Coding and Theorization) as this study method and analyzed the part of teaching unit development in this journal in the form of autoethnography. As a result, I pointed out: (1) Although an experienced mathematics teacher pays serious attention to curriculum and textbooks in teaching unit development, he has a conviction that he should improve and develop the content of curriculum and textbooks in order to enhance mathematical views and approach suitable for the students he is teaching, and to make them realize the value of mathematical thinking; (2) An experienced mathematics teacher develops teaching unit where the students’ learning history (mathematical contents, knowledge and skill) and the value of mathematical thinking meet, and he analyze teaching materials from the viewpoint of feedforward; (3) An experienced mathematics teacher enhance the practicability of teaching materials in class by going back and forth between teaching materials and the image of class.
Next, I created an analysis matrix for teaching unit development process, referring to the studies of PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) by Shulman (1987), Grossman (1990) and Ball (2008). Using this matrix, I analyzed how my PCK arises and functions in the storyline created in SCAT. The analysis made it clear that knowledge of educational goal and curriculum content functions first and specific mathematical knowledge of each unit is added; furthermore, knowledge of mathematics and students begins to function followed by knowledge of mathematics and its teaching; and again knowledge of educational goal and curriculum content is employed. Based on these results, I showed a structural model of my PCK in teaching unit development.
