Teacher community for high school mathematics instruction: strengths and challenges

摘要

This paper reports changes of the quality of instruction and students' attitudes towards mathematics at one high school during 3 years while teachers participated in a teacher community. The setting for this research was a small-sized high school in South Korea with 154 students and three mathematics teachers. I analyzed the teachers' mathematics classes based on types of interaction, types of questions, and mathematical quality in instruction. Their students' responses for the National Assessment of Educational Achievement study about attitudes towards mathematics were also analyzed. The findings show that this school, over all, improved the mathematical quality and changed the types of questions and the types of interactions towards students' participation in discussing, exploring, and probing mathematical meanings. The students' attitudes towards mathematics became more positive throughout the 3-year period. However, the changes in each teacher's mathematics instruction were different. This study discusses the challenges of having an effective teacher community and researching teachers as learners.