Recording the Use of Records of Practice in Mathematics Teacher Education

Curricular & Pedagogical Decision-Making Over Time

Over the past two semesters, I have been experimenting with ways of utilizing on-line multimedia records of teaching practice in my elementary mathematics teaching methods course at Sonoma State University. I continue to be struck by the invisible aspects of teaching (including teaching teachers) -- specifically instructional decision making. In this website, I endeavor to represent some of what I have been learning.

This work is based on two iterations of this decision making process in the context of implementing the use of records of practice. In both instances, my students observed two math lessons taught be CASTL Scholar Mary Hurley, a 4th/5th grade teacher in Oakland Unified School District. In the Fall, my students observed two distinct instances of Mary Hurley's teaching at home. During week 2 they observed a classroom routine called "Warm Up" and week 7 they observed an math task called the "Horse Problem." They completed corresponding assignments that we discussed in class at length during weeks 3 and 8 respectively. In the Spring, I tinkered with the ways in which I incorporated Mary Hurley's teaching into my course. Again this semester, students observed the "Warm Up,", but their assignment focused their gaze differently. The "Horse Problem" was used as an in-class culminating experience - based upon the task analysis framework developed by Mary Kay Stein & Peg Smith.

Thoughtout this website, I will represent records of my teacher education practice that focus on the use of records of practice as a curriculum material, and will present illustrations of the corresponding pedagogical choices that are entailed in their use. There are three specific aspects of the on-going instructional planning that has occurred in my QUEST project, all of which are "invisibles" of teaching: sequencing instructional tasks in mathematics teacher education, tweaking an assignment in different instantiations, and using the same instructional rescourse in tasks for to accomplish substantially different goals in teacher education.

Within these records of my teaching practice, I highlight three cases of the invisible work of teaching teachers that underlie my "curricularizing" the CASTL records of practice for to support instruction in a math methods course. Selecting appropriate and generative materials is just the beginning of the intellectual work of my own teaching.

Once instructional materials are selected for use, the teacher sequences their use and designs appropriate tasks.

Sometimes in reflecting on the enactment of a particular task the teacher discovers ways to refine the task to enhance its usability and better align with instructional goals.

Other time, through reflection, the teacher decides that while the materials are powerful, they can be effectively repurposed to address different instructional goals.

Throughout this website, I aim to illustrate aspects of these invisibles in mathematics teacher education.

I'd love to hear from you.

To contact me regarding my website please email me at kathy.morris@sonoma.edu

You can also provide feedback to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching regarding this project. They'd love to hear from you as well. Please email them at: questfeedback@carnegiefoundation.org