Elementary teachers' beliefs about the nature of mathematics, doing mathematics, mathematics classroom environment and critical thinking in mathematics in private schools in Beirut, Lebanon
- Beirut American University of Beirut - Faculty of Arts and Sciences - Department of Education 2007
- 85 pages
النوع : Mémoire
Teachers' beliefs about mathematics and about doing mathematics play a significa nt role in shaping their behavior, teaching practices and student's learning. Re cent reform efforts have advocated a new vision of mathematics, teaching mathema tics and critical thinking in mathematics classrooms; however, it is unclear how teachers actually conceptualize what is meant by these terms. The purpose of th is study is to examine elementary mathematics Lebanese teacher's beliefs. This s tudy was guided by the following questions: What are Lebanese elementary teacher s' beliefs in private schools in Beirut about the nature of mathematics, doing a nd teaching mathematics and critical thinking in mathematics? To what extent are teachers' beliefs about the nature of mathematics, doing/ teaching mathematics and critical thinking in mathematics correlated to each other? To what extent ar e Lebanese elementary teachers' beliefs about the nature of mathematics, doing/ teaching mathematics and critical thinking in mathematics reflected in their dec isions about what consititues an important mathematical task and high level thin king task? The research questions were investigated using a belief questionnaire and admini stered to 80 elementary mathematics teachers. Findings suggest that Lebanese tea chers hold stronger beliefs more consistent with the fallibilist view with respe ct to the nature of mathematics, doing mathematics, learning environment and cri tical thinking than the absolutist view. Correlation results showed that Lebanes e teachers' beliefs about the nature of math are correlated with their beliefs a bout doing mathematics as well as about the learning environment. Stepwise multi ple regressions showed that both Fallibilist and Absolutist items concerning the learning environment are significant predictors of participant's decision about high level thinking task and Absolutist items concerning the learning environme nt predict participant's decision about important mathematical task. Results of the study will contribute to the literature on teacher beliefs in gen eral and to the growing body of literature on Lebanese elementary mathematics ed ucation in particular. The results will also be of interest to teachers and teac her educators as they work toward increasing teacher's capacities to support hig h level thinking and ..
Beirut Beyrouth Les Attitudes et conceptions des enseignants Private sector Elementary Education Math education Secteur Privé Cycle primaire L’enseignement du Maths Teachers attitudes and conceptions التعليم الخاص المرحلة الابتدائية تعليم الرياضيات بيروت مواقف المعلمين وتصوراتهم