Portrait of high school math teachers: critical analysis of dominant practice

Abstract

Based on (1) the results of previous studies on importance of teachers’ beliefs on teaching and learning for their everyday practice and (2) the results speaking in favour of complex relationship between beliefs and practice, the goal of this paper is to examine mathematics teaching at upper secondary level putting the previously mentioned research traditions into a dialogue. The authors argue that the relationship between beliefs and practice is characterized by mutual compliance, but that also in some cases practices may go beyond teachers’ reported beliefs or they may even contradict each other. Mathematics teachers’ practices are anlyzed based on the data from two consecutive studies aiming to explore the complex relationship between beliefs and practices. Results point that most mathematics teachers are more oriented towards traditional approach to teaching, but also there is a group of teachers who, despite traditional orientation, exhibit practices that go somewhat beyond the traditional framework. The results are discussed in the light of teachers’ initial education and their future professional development.