Enhancing Teacher Professional Development for Early Years Mathematics Teachers Working in Disadvantaged Contexts
Teacher professional development (PD) is recognised globally as a key component for bringing about education reform. This study focuses on the impact of the PD dimension of the first year of a four-year project, RoleM (Representations, Oral Language and E
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Introduction The imperative to build strong foundations for mathematical understanding in early childhood settings catering for students from disadvantaged backgrounds is widely acknowledged. It is now well recognised that young children enter early childhood settings with substantive intuitive knowledge about mathematics and this can serve as a base for developing formal mathematical thinking (Carpenter et al. 2003). In addition, young children are capable of engaging with challenging mathematical concepts (e.g., Balfanz et al. 2003). There is also strong evidence that an understanding of mathematics at an early age impacts on later mathematical achievement (Aubrey et al. 2006). These strong foundations are particularly crucial for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. While we recognise that many outside school factors contribute to disadvantaged students being unsuccessful, quality learning is known to be strongly associated with quality teaching (Hattie 2009; Smart et al. 2008). This chapter shares the results of the first year of our longitudinal study situated in the first three years of schooling in some of the most disadvantaged contexts in Queensland, the geographically second largest state of Australia. Its particular focus is drawing implications for professional development for all teachers working in disadvantaged contexts.
Background Students who are most at risk are often from disadvantaged backgrounds. In a large study with 20,000 students across a range of age groups Denton and West (2002) E. Warren (B) · J. Quine Australian Catholic University, PO Box 456, Virginia 4014, Australia e-mail: [email protected] J. Quine e-mail: [email protected] L.D. English, J.T. Mulligan (eds.), Reconceptualizing Early Mathematics Learning, Advances in Mathematics Education, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6440-8_14, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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found that by the end of the first year of schooling, a very significant gap in the understanding of mathematical concepts existed between students from high income families and low income families, with the latter gaining little in the first year of school. They also reported that students who possess little mathematical knowledge at the commencement of formal schooling remain low achievers throughout the elementary years and beyond. Given that students from low income families usually come to formal schooling with the same basic readiness to learn as compared with the more advantaged students (Denton and West 2002), the quality of education that occurs in the first years of schooling is crucial to bridging the gap between the two groups.
Disadvantaged Contexts Disadvantaged students predominantly come from neighbourhoods that exhibit financial disadvantage. In addition to socioeconomic disadvantage, the poorest neighbourhoods tend to have higher rates of social isolation, unemployment, racial isolation, and financial dependence (Sampson 2000). These types of neighbourhoods are a worldwide phenomena, existin
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