Awareness as an enactivist framework for the mathematical learning of teachers, mentors and institutions

Date: December 2014
Author(s): Armando Paulino Preciado-Babb, Martina Metz & Chenoa Marcotte
Published in: ZDM Mathematics Education

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Abstract

This paper explores the learning of both individuals and organizations within the context of a 3-year professional development program for mathematics and science teachers in a middle school. We propose to extend the notion of awareness from individuals to autonomous systems as a means to study the learning of teachers, mentors, the school, and the organization that provided the program. We describe how the notions of structural determinism and co-evolution through structural coupling informed the enactment of the program, as well as how this perspective informed the design of research on teachers’ experiences of their deepening understanding of mathematics for teaching during this time. Then we elaborate on the levels of awareness developed by teachers, mentors, the school, and the organization as a result of the constant interactions and mutual influence along and beyond the program. Data consisted of post-interviews with eleven mathematics teachers, our own reflections, and the documents generated during the program.

Preciado-Babb, A. P., Metz, M., & Marcotte, C. (2014). Awareness as an enactivist framework for the mathematical learning of teachers, mentors and institutions. ZDM, 47(2), 257–268. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-014-0657-0