Chigeza, Philemon, and Taylor, Subhashni (2024) Supporting Out-of-Field Mathematics Teaching in Middle Years of Schooling. In: Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. From: MERGA 46: surfing the waves of mathematics education, 30 June - 4 July 2024, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.

PDF (Abstract Only) - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only

Abstract

Despite an understanding that mathematics is critical for students’ future academic and career options, as well as the perception that mathematics can be a ‘difficult’ subject for some students, out-of-field mathematics teaching remains most prevalent in regional and remote schools in Australia. Out-of-field mathematics teaching has been implicated with poorer student outcomes, including student disengagement and lower levels of participation and achievement (Weldon, 2016; Vale et al., 2021). Research also reveals that transition from year 6 to 7 poses a big challenge for both teachers and students. This transition challenge is further exacerbated in classrooms with out-of-field mathematics teaching (Sniedze-Gregory, 2021). If out-of-field mathematics teaching is prevalent and inevitable in regional and remote schools, then teachers need effective support to succeed, so that their students can succeed too. There is a need to reimagine the type of support that out-of-field teachers need to succeed. This pilot project investigated the support strategies that are required for out-of-field mathematics teaching in middle years of schooling. The study incorporated an ethnography research approach to capture both in-field and out-of-field mathematics teachers’ perceptions of the type of support required for out-of-field mathematics teaching in middle years of schooling (from year 7 to 9) in Far North Queensland during two professional learning workshops. In this presentation, we share three preliminary findings from the pilot. Firstly, both in-field and out-of-field teachers articulated that with a well-designed and coordinated inhouse program, it can take approximately two years for out-of-field teachers to upskill on-the-job and become in-field mathematics teachers. Secondly, the inhouse program should aim to develop the out-of-field teachers’ confidence, knowledge, and skills gap with teaching multiplicative, proportional, algebraic, and functional reasoning strategies from year 5 to 9. Thirdly, that Head of Departments do not have adequate time and resources to mentor and address these issues. There is need for a coordinated approach across schools in the district. These findings will inform the next phase of the project.

Item ID:	83404
Item Type:	Conference Item (Abstract / Summary)
ISBN:	978-1-920846-35-0
Related URLs:	https://merga.net.au/publications/annual...
Copyright Information:	© MERGA Inc. 2024
Date Deposited:	27 Aug 2024 23:01
FoR Codes:	39 EDUCATION > 3904 Specialist studies in education > 390411 Special education and disability @ 100%
SEO Codes:	16 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 1699 Other education and training > 169999 Other education and training not elsewhere classified @ 100%
Downloads:	Total: 4
	More Statistics