Merrilyn Goos & Paul Hernandez-Martinez

This paper presents insights into the transformation of teaching practices in an undergraduate engineering mathematics course. Adopting a developmental design research approach, the second author introduced mathematical modelling and group work into his teaching of the course, while the first author offered peer observation and feedback to support pedagogical change. The paper uses a sociocultural framework to examine how the peer observation process supported the mathematics lecturer in implementing the teaching innovation. A previously developed adaptation of Valsiner’s zone theory is used to analyse the productive tensions experienced by the lecturer and the observer’s role in promoting change.