Good practices in the University of Huelva: The professional knowledge in action of the teacher trainer of “Mathematics and Its Didactic”

Abstract

In line with current research in the area of Mathematics Education (Llinares & Krainer, 2006), this study seeks to understand, from the analysis of practice, the professional knowledge of the teacher trainees who teaches the subject of 'Mathematics and Teaching ' on the University of Huelva. We approach this knowledge from three theoretical focuses: conceptions of learning and teaching mathematics, communication which has been promoted and the type of questions which has been asked. We address this understanding through a case study design, considering three teachers concerned with their own professional development and who participated in an innovation teaching project. Classroom recordings have been the main source for data gathering, whose analysis has been complemented by the information coming from questionnaires to students and audio recordings of project meetings. Despite the special feature of each class, the three teachers share three important elements: First, they show a teacher profile closer to an investigative trend, and proposed non-direct solution problems to trigger the mathematical activity in the classroom and to encourage the students’ justification and argumentation. Second, three teachers’ classrooms are characterized by reflexive communication, since the discussion among students to co-construct the intended content is frequent. However, the type of questions found in each classroom is significant different among teachers. We conclude this study with some reflections about the reasons of these differences and propose some variables or indicators that have emerged as characteristic of a good university teacher.

Keywords

• conocimiento profesional
• formador de profesores
• educación matemática
• estudio de caso
• concepciones sobre el aprendizaje y enseñanza de las matemáticas
• comunicación promovida
• preguntas formuladas