Practitioner Inquiry: Developing Capabilities in Mathematics Teachers

Practitioner Inquiry: Developing Capabilities in Mathematics Teachers
Jyoti JhagrooThe 21st century has seen a definite shift from teacher training towards teacher education in initial teacher education programmes. As a tertiary educator in a postgraduate initial teacher education program, I have seen the dichotomous thinking in which some of my education students embrace the idea of an inquiry-based mathematics approach with multiple solutions, while others, for whom mathematics has always been about finding a solution through learned steps of reasoning, face insurmountable challenges. While mathematics educators continue to advocate for a constructivist approach to learning, current practice has not overwhelmingly shifted from the symbol manipulation procedural approach. Could this be attributed to the notion that how we teach mathematics may be an internally learned habit from the way we were taught and that change is difficult because it requires that habit to be broken? Through the lived experiences of first-year teachers as inquiring practitioners, I explore the concept of practitioner inquiry and its implication for mathematics practitioners, and I consider how practitioner inquiry could be a catalyst for transforming mathematics education practices.

Reviewing of research papers

Research papers will be blind reviewed by a panel of peers approved by the conference committee. The main purpose of the refereeing process is to contribute to the growth and development of quality practice in mathematics education research. Thus reviewers are asked to assist authors by providing helpful feedback and to comment on the suitability of papers for presentation at the conference. Accordingly, it will not be assumed that published papers presented at the conference will be as polished as articles in scholarly journals. Referees will be asked to assess papers being reviewed against the accepted norms for scholarly works presented at MERGA conferences, as set out above.

Each conference proceedings’ Editorial Team will exercise discretion over the reviewing process.

Reviewers’ comments will be returned to the authors. Authors whose papers are not accepted for publication may be invited by the editorial panel to present their paper at the conference, with an abstract (only) being published in the proceedings. Papers may be rejected outright, with no opportunity for presentation at the conference in an alternative form.

The MERGA website has detailed advice about criteria for reviewing of MERGA papers, review forms, and examples of strong and poor reviews of different types.

Practitioner Inquiry: Developing Capabilities in Mathematics Teachers

Practitioner Inquiry: Developing Capabilities in Mathematics Teachers

Short Communications

Presentation of short communications

Beth Southwell Practical Implications Award

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Research Papers

Research papers can take two major forms:

i. Empirical investigations

ii. Theoretical or position papers

Originality

Reviewing of research papers

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Early Career Research Award

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