Designing educative curriculum materials for primary mathematics teachers for use during curriculum reform

Mathematics curricula internationally and in Ireland are undergoing significant changes to ensure students possess critical 21st-century skills. Teachers must develop the necessary pedagogical knowledge to enact reformed curricula. Unfortunately, time, capacity, school culture, and choice often impede teachers’ participation in continued professional development (CPD) beneficial to their pedagogical growth, issues often exacerbated by reform. Existing design models for CPD do not fully describe their effectiveness during reform, signalling a need to further understand and identify effective CPD models for use during periods of change. Educative curriculum materials (ECMs) are one method of CPD that aims to support teachers in progressing their practice while improving student learning. While research suggests that ECMs can positively impact teachers’ professional learning, limited research exists on how they can be designed and used during curriculum reform. Employing a design-based research (DBR) methodology, this study collaboratively investigates the design and implementation of ECMs for primary teachers in Ireland. ECMs were designed and refined throughout four iterative design cycles by combining relevant literature, educational theories, and stakeholder input. The ECMs targeted questioning in mathematics lessons to promote students’ critical thinking skills development. The emerging theoretically informed MACE design framework and data from surveys, focus groups, and observations guided the design. Findings indicate that the ECMs taught teachers the value of questioning and how to implement it in lessons. Teachers appreciated the non-prescriptive nature of the ECMs and their simplistic design. Moreover, individualised support from the researcher was identified as invaluable to professional learning. This project’s contributions include the identified potential for ECMs to be a practical approach to CPD, particularly during curriculum reform. In addition, the emerging MACE design model provides four key design criteria and five design informants for developing and implementing ECMs. Although beyond the immediate scope of this research, the MACE design model could be adapted to inform the design of other forms of CPD.

Publisher

University of Galway

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

cbn

Collections

University of Galway Theses (PhD Theses)