5.1 Introduction
School B!s Principal and teachers completed the same questionnaire as School A. Individual responses, recorded in the comment boxes, were used where needed to elaborate a viewpoint.
5.2 Teacher Profiles
The teacher profiles are described in the same formation as that used in Chapter 4. The first section of the questionnaire examined age range, experience and number of years in current position. The second section concerned the mathematical qualifications held by the respondents, whether they had taken part in a professional development contract for mathematics, including the Numeracy Project, and their previous responsibility for mathematics as a department. The respondents represented approximately 60% of the total teaching staff at School B.
5.2.1 Age and experience
The teachers! age ranges are shown in Figure 5.1. In contrast to School A, the ages of the teachers at School B were more widely spread with representatives at each of the age groups up to 65.
Similar to School A, the ages were collected to give an insight into the respondents! possible beliefs towards mathematics as influenced by the way they themselves were taught.
Figure 5.1: Age of Respondents
The largest percentage of teachers was in the age range of 25 to 29 with 30.8% of the teachers in this age group. Teachers under the age of 25 accounted for 7.7%. These teachers would likely have been taught mathematics at primary school under the constructivist pedagogy of the newly introduced curriculum of 1992, assuming that their teachers had received and implemented the professional development that accompanied the introduction of the new curriculum. A further 7.7% of teachers were in the 30 to 34 year old age range and would have been at the end of their primary education as the constructivist pedagogy was introduced to replace the behaviourist pedagogy of the previous curriculum. 53.8% of the teachers were 35 years or over and would have been at primary school prior to the introduction of the constructivist based curriculum in 1992.
The experience of the teachers was recorded in terms of years as a teacher, not only in their present school. 23% had 3 years or less experience, 35% had between 4 and 10 years experience, 11% had between 10 and 15 years experience and 32% had over 20 years teaching experience, with the highest in the group being 36 years. The time "served! in their present school ranged from one to sixteen years. One of the respondents was the lead teacher of mathematics.
5.2.2 Mathematics qualifications, mathematical professional development and mathematics anxiety
Principal B stated that they had formally studied Level 1 mathematics as a university undergraduate for a non-mathematical degree. They had not completed further qualifications that included mathematics or had a mathematics education component. Principal B had participated in a Ministry provided professional development contract for the New Zealand curriculum but had not taken part in professional development offered through New Zealand!s Numeracy Project. The school Principal B led did not participate in the New Zealand Numeracy Project because, the Principal stated, they saw no need:
At that time, our maths results overall were very, very good so we couldn't see the need.
Teachers qualifications attained in mathematics varied. This is shown graphically in Figure 5.2.
65.4% had not studied mathematics beyond high school and 34.6% of the teachers had studied mathematics at University as part of a non- mathematics degree. Almost half (44.4%) of those teachers who did mathematics at University did so as part of teacher education programs.
Despite the teachers in School B holding higher mathematics qualifications than those held by the teachers in School A an item of discussion linked to their recognition of other teachers! lack of content knowledge:
I think that it is interesting that, where there are kids from level 3 to level 6, there are teachers at our school who don't know higher than 3A. You know, how are we catering to those top kids when the teachers don't know it?”
19.2% of School B!s teachers had participated in a Ministry contract for mathematics in the New Zealand curriculum. 50% of the teachers had participated in the professional development within the Numeracy Project.
5.3 Assessing mathematical identity
Using the Mathematics Value Inventory (MVI) as a basis (Luttrell, et al., 2010), questions were posed about Principal and teacher attitudes towards mathematics.
Respondents rated their feelings on a five-point scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Table 5.1 shows collated responses. A coloured letter "P! indicates the Principal!s answers. Agreement with statements 1 to 10 (shaded blue) indicates negative feelings towards mathematics and agreement with statements 11 to 19 indicates positive feelings towards mathematics for the participant.
Strongly disagree Mildly disagree Neutral Mildly agree Strongly agree
1 There are almost no benefits from knowing mathematics
92%
P
0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 8.0% 2 I see no point in being
able to do maths. 92% P 4.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.0% 3 Having a solid background in mathematics is worthless 84% P 8.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.0% 4 I have little to gain by
learning how to do maths
88%
P
8.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.0% 5 I do not need maths in my
everyday life 76.0% P 12.0% 4.0% 8.0% 12.5% 6 Calculating my school budget is stressful 40.0% P 12.0% 40.0% 4.0% 0.0% 7 Maths activities scare me 52.0% 20.0%
P 12.0% 12.0% 4.0% 8 Trying to do maths causes me a lot of anxiety. 44.0% P 28.0% 12.0% 12.0% 4.0% 9 Mathematical symbols confuse me. 48.0% P 24.0% 12.0% 8.0% 8.0% 10 Solving math problems is
too difficult for me.
36.0%
P
40.0% 4.0% 16.0% 4.0% 11 Understanding maths has
many benefits for me.
0.0% 8.0% 4.0% 28.0% 60.0% P 12 I would be upset to be seen as “average” in maths 12.0% 4.0% 20.0% 40.0% 24.0% P
13 Doing well in courses involving maths is important to me
4.0% 4.0% 32.0% 28.0%
P
32.0%