Location
Instructional Strategies 1 (Session 1 Breakouts)
Proposal Track
Practice Report
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
To understand cultural schemas shared by novice mathematics teachers, an ethnographic case study of five novice teachers who graduated from the same student-centered university program was conducted. Strauss and Quinn’s (1997/2001) interpretation of schema framed the identification of participants’ shared, tacit understandings about student-centered and teacher-centered methods and how each individual applied those schemas to their teaching practices.
Interviewing and data analysis strategies that modified and blended methods from Quinn’s (2005) discourse analysis, Seidman’s (2013) interview strategies, and D’Andrade’s (1995) work in cognitive anthropology were used. Participants shared stories about their upbringing, learning experiences, teacher training, and teaching practices. Coding and analysis of transcripts attending to metaphors and reasoning informed findings related to the group’s tacit understandings about teaching and schemas that were at work.
Student-centered schemas related to the role of the teacher were found to parallel rather than replace pre-existing traditional teacher-centered schemas. The oppositional nature of the two schemas caused a mental condition of dissonance we termed cognitive friction. In order to reduce that friction, participants integrated the shared schemas to create an individual teaching schema, which did not completely accept or reject either teacher-centered or student-centered methods, but fell on a continuum between the two.
Keywords
Qualitative Methods, Schema Theory, Math Teachers, Student-centered Instruction, Teacher-centered Instruction
Professional Bio
Dr. Winter is a Data Analyst for the U.S. Navy at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) on Andros Island, Bahamas. Drs. Richard and Lorraine Schmertzing are both professors at Valdosta State University in the Department of Leadership, Technology, and Work Force Development: he in Qualitative Research and she in Instructional Technology. Both worked with Dr. Winter on this study as part of her dissertation. All three have an interest in how qualitative research can position researchers to use what they know about the importance of context to leverage educational research to provide power and possibilities for educators.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Winter, Julia; Schmertzing, Richard; and Schmertzing, Lorraine C., "The Power of Schemas: Math Teachers on Teaching" (2020). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 2.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2020/2020/2
The Power of Schemas Reference list
The Power of Schemas: Math Teachers on Teaching
Instructional Strategies 1 (Session 1 Breakouts)
To understand cultural schemas shared by novice mathematics teachers, an ethnographic case study of five novice teachers who graduated from the same student-centered university program was conducted. Strauss and Quinn’s (1997/2001) interpretation of schema framed the identification of participants’ shared, tacit understandings about student-centered and teacher-centered methods and how each individual applied those schemas to their teaching practices.
Interviewing and data analysis strategies that modified and blended methods from Quinn’s (2005) discourse analysis, Seidman’s (2013) interview strategies, and D’Andrade’s (1995) work in cognitive anthropology were used. Participants shared stories about their upbringing, learning experiences, teacher training, and teaching practices. Coding and analysis of transcripts attending to metaphors and reasoning informed findings related to the group’s tacit understandings about teaching and schemas that were at work.
Student-centered schemas related to the role of the teacher were found to parallel rather than replace pre-existing traditional teacher-centered schemas. The oppositional nature of the two schemas caused a mental condition of dissonance we termed cognitive friction. In order to reduce that friction, participants integrated the shared schemas to create an individual teaching schema, which did not completely accept or reject either teacher-centered or student-centered methods, but fell on a continuum between the two.
