Professional learning and action research: Early career teachers reflect on their practice

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Professional learning and action research: Early careerteachers reflect on their practice

Anne Scott & Philip Clarkson & Andrea McDonough

Received: 5 February 2011 /Accepted: 26 October 2011 /Published online: 11 April 2012# Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Inc. 2012

Abstract Three early career primary school teachers shared their perceptions ofchanges in their teaching of mathematics 8–18 months after their participation in anaction research project. Comparing data collected throughout the lifetime of theproject with analyses of participants’ reflections written in response to three open-ended questions posed months later indicated sustained shifts in specific elements oftheir planning and implementation of mathematics lessons. These included: main-taining a clear mathematical focus for each lesson; using questions effectivelythroughout the lesson; and providing quality activities and tasks. Teachers attributedchanges to both their own individualistic focus attended to during the project, and tothree contextual factors at the school level.

Keywords Teacher education . Professional learning . Professional development .

Action research . Reflective practice . Practical knowledge

Effective ongoing professional learning has been identified as a key factor forcurriculum reform (Darling-Hammond, 1990) and for improving the teaching ofmathematics (Sowder, 2007). Terms such as professional development and profes-sional learning are often used interchangeably in the literature; we use the latter toacknowledge that learning is a complex process which may involve reflections onexperiences in a myriad of settings over time and that is not necessarily restricted byor confined to planned activities delivered in designated sessions or programs.Nevertheless, specific activities in sessions and/or programs may not only be thestimuli for, but also integral elements of, the learning process.

Math Ed Res J (2012) 24:129–151DOI 10.1007/s13394-012-0035-6

A. Scott (*) : P. Clarkson : A. McDonoughSchool of Education, Australian Catholic University, Locked bag 4115, Fitzroy, 3065, Victoria, Australiae-mail: [email protected]

P. Clarksone-mail: [email protected]

A. McDonoughe-mail: [email protected]

Action research is the generic term describing an approach in which action andinquiry are considered together (Punch, 2009). It is used widely in educationalsettings and, according to Punch, has a number of characteristics. The important onesfor this study are: it addresses a specific problem or issue often identified by theteacher; it involves gathering information systematically; and it is a process of self-reflection undertaken in such a way to produce practical knowledge to resolve orinform the issue. Although there are variations of the approach such as participatoryaction research, practical action research, and collaborative action research, we usethe generic term, although our process is on the edge of collaborative action researchwhich is characterised by all participants working together as a community of learnersand as co-researchers (Punch, 2009). In this article, we attend to the professionallearning and reflection which occur in action research.

Feiman-Nemser (2001) argued that improving student learning necessitated “morepowerful learning opportunities for teachers” (p. 1014) to “strengthen and sustainteaching” (p. 1013). She identified four central tasks for early career teachers (thosewith a few years’ teaching experience) which included: to extend and deepen subjectmatter knowledge; to extend and refine repertoire in curriculum, instruction, and assess-ment; to strengthen skills and dispositions to study and improve teaching; and to expandresponsibilities and develop leadership skills. These central tasks underpin the activitiesthat contribute to the craft of teaching – a complexmix between theory and practice whichbecomes a personal “theory-in-action” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1985, p. 184).

We posit that early career teachers may benefit from undertaking their own actionresearch focusing upon Feiman-Nemser’s (2001) central tasks as a means of internal-ising their professional learning. In this article, we examine three early career primaryteachers’ reflections on their teaching of mathematics 8–18 months after their partic-ipation in an action research project. We seek evidence of contextual support structureswhich sustain the impact of the professional learning in authentic settings. This isparticularly important because retention rates of practitioners in the teaching professionworldwide, as well as in Australia, have been declining (Directorate for Education of theOrganisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, 2005). Hence, weneed to find ways to support and nurture early career teachers who are experimentingand consolidating their abilities and skills as teachers of mathematics. We argue thatindividual teacher self-selection of a specific aspect of mathematics teaching fordevelopment and reflection will empower teachers to see the value of using actionresearch in their practice to drive their professional learning further.

Supporting professional learning

In 2005 the OECD report Teachers matter: Attracting, developing and retainingeffective teachers stated that:

Effective professional development is on-going, includes training, practice and feed-back, and provides adequate time and follow-up support. Successful programmes involveteachers in learning activities that are similar to ones they will use with their students, andencourage the development of teachers’ learning communities. (Chapter 4, p. 1)

Presumably, such generic aspects underpin effective professional learning for mostdisciplines in teaching. However, there are some that appear to be essential or at least

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desirable for effective professional learning in mathematics instruction. For example,it is important to develop teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (AustralianAssociation of Mathematics Teachers, 2002, 2006; Malara & Zan, 2008; Sowder,2007) and to view teachers as decision makers (Malara & Zan, 2008; Muir &Beswick, 2007; Ruthven & Goodchild, 2008) who are influenced by their own“knowledge, beliefs and emotions” (Malara & Zan, 2008, p. 536).

Guskey (2002) argued that changes in teachers’ attitudes and beliefs are primarilyexperientially based: “Practices that are found to work - that is, those that teachersfind useful in helping students attain desired learning outcomes - are retained andrepeated. Those that do not work or yield no tangible evidence of success aregenerally abandoned” (p. 384). This suggests teachers have developed beliefs aboutthe value of the retained practices for promoting student learning. Several studiesreport that teachers’ views of teaching mathematics gradually become more alignedto the goals of the professional learning project while they are participating in it(Chamberlin, 2009; McDonough, Clarkson & Scott, 2010; Muir & Beswick, 2007).Generally, there is evidence of teachers trialling activities and discussing issues inschools while they are involved in the project; however, these are often also expect-ations of teachers (McDonough et al., 2010). Hence, even though such practices aredesirable these may be temporary responses to the professional learning programwhich are not supported by teacher beliefs and do not transpire into a teacher’sregular repertoire for teaching.

Clarke and Hollingsworth (2002) argued that change occurs through the mediatingprocesses of reflection and enactment involving four domains that impact on teach-ers’ professional development. These four domains include: external and contextualfactors; personal knowledge, attitude and beliefs about teaching; practice and exper-imentation; and a consideration of the consequences of the salient outcomes. Manyprofessional learning initiatives endeavour to facilitate, support and/or guide teachersthrough a reflective process in one way or another to maximise professional learningopportunities. For example, Muir and Beswick (2007) used a Supportive ClassroomReflection Process (SCRP) that combined professional learning, classroom practice,and reflection using a collaborative action research approach. The process involvedteachers selecting a personal focus of one or two characteristics of effective teachingof numeracy for the duration of the project. Planned lessons were video recorded,reviewed, and central to professional conversations between a researcher and theteacher. Throughout various stages of the action research cycle and the SCRP theresearcher asked questions to assist the teacher to reflect more deeply on theirclassroom practice. Muir and Beswick (2007) concluded that the SCRP provided asupportive guide for teachers and that the physical presence of an external voice mayhave been necessary for some teachers to have maximised the professional conver-sation which took place following the viewing of video footage of classroom activity.However, they acknowledged that the SCRP was time intensive and the teachers’reflective activity as reported was limited to those professional discussion sessions.The researchers could not account for any possible reflections that teachers may havehad in “a different context (time, place, stimulus, company)” (p. 90). Nevertheless, thisis one way to assist teachers through the mediating process of reflection and enactment.

A further mode of reflection, which has been used widely, is that of the narrative(Shepherd, 2006). Usually, a teacher records the reflective process as a narrative

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capturing a sense of the experience as s/he understands it. Such narratives do notmerely describe events; they provide insights into context-specific situations unearth-ing deeply held values and beliefs that are enacted within the experience (Carter &Doyle, 1996; Grossman, 1995; Gudmundsdottir, 2001).

Also focussed on supporting professional learning to enhance the teaching ofmathematics, Scott, Clarkson and McDonough (2010) devised a set of protocolswhich purposefully positioned the teacher in primary control of a process referredto as Self-Analysis Professional Portfolio (SAPP).1 SAPP is a simple process thatincorporates and extends on some elements from earlier studies in a way that supportsteachers in ongoing professional learning and reflection. The process fits within theparameters of action research involving a cyclical process: plan, act, observe, andreflect (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007).

The set of protocols developed for SAPP are guidelines used by classroompractitioners to conduct a simple, individualised, focussed action research study abouttheir teaching as part of their regular teaching program. Each teacher self-selects apersonally significant aspect of their teaching of mathematics to attend to during theirparticipation in a mathematics professional learning project. Further, each takesresponsibility for collecting and analysing evidence of their practice in the forms ofsnippets of video footage of his/her practice, related lesson plans, work samples fromstudents, and written reflective notes. Data collection and analysis result in thecreation of a digital portfolio capturing mini episodes of classroom practice thatpromote self-reflection as narratives.

The use of the SAPP procedure and protocols, as reported more fully in Scott et al.(2010), underpinned the research reported in this article. An overview of the processand the set of protocols are included as Appendix 1. By combining these techniquesthat utilise multimodal text (visual image, audio, and movement) context-specificmoments in time were not only shared with others, but also became a focus forprolonged reflection for each teacher. During this process, the researchers and fellowteacher co-researchers acted as a group of supportive critical friends. During 2008 to2009 we university researchers and the teachers worked as a SAPP team, that is, weparticipated as co-researchers in action research. The teachers shared their evidenceand insights with the group on at least three occasions in person and exchanged ideasin writing via group email conversations. In this way, our approach is similar tocollaborative action research. To an extent, the sharing in the group context providedthe physical presence of external voices which was a strength of SCRP (Muir &Beswick, 2007). Moreover, “it seem[ed] the very act of the teachers collecting theirown data enable[d] them to appropriate the data and the consequence analyses with acommitment and engagement that is often lacking when data from a different sourceis considered in professional learning programs” (Scott et al., 2010, p. 5).

Noting that teachers draw on their personally significant experiences, sets ofbeliefs, values, varying levels of knowledge, and skills, suggests that potentially eachindividual teacher has his or her own personal professional learning trajectory withdiffering entry and exit points. Furthermore, a process of self-understanding is a

1 Although the specific digital portfolio tool referred to in this article is the Self-Analysis ProfessionalPortfolio (SAPP) the generic term digital portfolio is used interchangeably to increase the readability of thetext.

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professional learning journey that does not necessarily cease once a scheduledprogram concludes.

Indeed we would hope, following the ethos of action research, that the teacherswould continue this type of journey throughout their professional lives. Based onthese notions, the present study examined early career teachers’ reflections on theirteaching and their perceived changes in practice some months after the actionresearch had concluded. The research questions addressed in this article are:

& What evidence is there of continued attention, in the views and espoused practicesof these early career teachers, to their self-selected SAPP focus for teaching ofmathematics some 8–18 months following their participation in a SAPP team?

& Which factors either supported or sustained the teachers’ self-selected focus forteaching of mathematics, and which impeded or prohibited these teachers fromacting in their “ideal” ways?

The research

Background context

It is important to note that the present study, conducted in the context of the use of theSelf-Analysis Professional Portfolio (SAPP), was situated within a larger context, aprofessional learning project titled Contemporary Teaching and Learning Mathemat-ics (CTLM, Clarke, Downton, Roche, Clarkson, Scott, McDonough et al., 2009). Themain aim of CTLM was enhancing pedagogical content knowledge of teachers as anintegral component for increasing students’ mathematical learning. In brief, teachersfrom 11 Catholic primary schools in and around Melbourne participated in 12 fulldays of professional learning over two years led by teacher educators from AustralianCatholic University (ACU) and sponsored by the Catholic Education Office Mel-bourne (CEOM). Between these days, teachers undertook a range of teaching andassessment activities related to the project. They were supported in classrooms, inschool professional learning team meetings, and at the professional development daysby a variety of people including fellow teachers, CEOM staff, and ACU teachereducators and pre-service teachers. During the first day of CTLM, teachers wereinvited to join SAPP as co-researchers interested in reflecting on their teaching ofmathematics by creating a digital portfolio of classroom practice.

In 2008, the first year of the CTLM, nine teachers representing four schoolsbecame involved in SAPP. In 2009, two of the teachers from 2008 were joinedby five more teachers in the SAPP team. Some teachers from 2008 did notcontinue their participation because they changed schools and were no longerinvolved in CTLM, took on new positions of responsibility, and/or had intendedto participate for only one year. Although we met as a group on three occasionsto discuss the protocols we had developed and to share insights gained regard-ing the teachers’ individually chosen foci, the decisions of when, where, andwhat data were collected for each individual teacher’s digital portfolio, andwhat would be analysed and shared, remained the responsibility of that teacheras a co-researcher.


Participants

We draw on data from three early career teachers who are representative of a group ofthose who worked with us in the SAPP teams. Although there was some variationbetween the nine teachers in terms of experience and types of school in which theywere now teaching, all teachers, including the three we report on specifically in thispaper, had a commitment to change their teaching in ways they self-identified andthat were in line with practices espoused through CTLM. We planned for teachers tojoin us in a SAPP team for one year but the decision to participate was voluntary. Allthree teachers had between two and five years’ teaching experience when they joinedthe team.

In 2008, Lana and Leonie (pseudonyms are used to identify teachers who partic-ipated in the study), worked together in Year 1 and 2 respectively, in a school in thenorthern suburbs of Melbourne. Lana had completed five years of teaching by thestart of 2008, and Leonie had completed two years of teaching. Lana was confident,articulate and appeared to support and encourage her colleague Leonie who appearedless confident. At the end of 2008, Lana commenced maternity leave and Leonie didnot choose to continue her involvement in the SAPP team.

In 2008, Emma, having taught three years by the start of 2008, was teaching acombined Preparatory and Year 1 class four days a week and fulfilled her responsi-bilities as the Religious Education Coordinator each Friday in a school in the westernsuburbs of Melbourne. Emma appeared to manage her dual responsibilities withminimal fuss and maintained a modest disposition. She continued her participationin the SAPP team and her leadership role in 2009, but in that year taught a combinedYear 1 and 2 class.

Data sources

Data for the present analysis were collected both during the life of the action researchand 8–18 months following the research. Data consist of three teachers’ digitalportfolios and university researchers’ field notes of observed lessons collected duringthe life of the action research. Data gathered during the 8-18-month period followingtheir participation in a SAPP team include teachers’ written or verbal responses to aset of open-ended questions about their teaching of mathematics, and artefacts such asplanning notes, photographs, or work samples.

Digital portfolio

When teachers joined the SAPP team, each was given the set of SAPP protocolselectronically as files on a portable memory stick. The digital portfolio comprisedfour folders. A file in each folder had protocols and suggestions to give the teachersguidelines and ideas on how to start the task. Three folders represented three sets ofdata collection taken in March, July, and October. Teachers were asked to include atleast one 60-second video clip of their classroom practice, digital copies of students’work, and a reflective commentary on the video clip(s) in each folder. The fourthfolder completed in November contained a graphic organiser referred to as a Before

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and After Chart which encouraged teachers to review their video clips and thenidentify what changes had occurred over time. The full description of the set ofprotocols developed is reported in Scott et al. (2010). This set of data providedinsights about the selected teachers’ professional learning journeys concerning aspecific aspect of their teaching of mathematics at the conclusion of their involvementin the SAPP team.

Group sessions

During the period teachers were involved with SAPP, three group face-to-facesessions per year were held for teacher co-researchers and the university team todiscuss the data collection process and progress of each teacher’s action research.Free-flowing conversations based around the video snippets the group viewed wererecorded and used as a data source to enhance our understanding of teachers’journeys. Emails exchanged between members were also archived and examined togain deeper insights into teacher change. Data from these sources are not reportedhere.

Lesson observations

As part of their involvement in a SAPP team, each of the four teachers permitted auniversity researcher to observe one or two of their scheduled mathematics lessons.During each observation, the researcher took anecdotal notes with the aim of record-ing as much detail as possible of the lesson including teacher and students’ activities.These data serve to verify and/or qualify the presence of the teacher’s intended focusin their teaching on these occasions. There was also a post-lesson audio-recordedsemi-structured interview with the teacher to discuss specific aspects of the lesson;however, these latter data are excluded as they are beyond the scope of this article.

Responses to a set of open-ended questions

In July 2010 an email was sent to teachers who had participated in SAPP during2008–2009 inviting them to tell us about their teaching of mathematics and toshed light on the impact of the professional learning project at their school. Theinvitation included the three key questions (see below) and three means forresponding. Two response options involved being interviewed at a mutuallyconvenient time either in person at their school, or by telephone; the third optionwas to respond to the questions in writing by return email. The three keyquestions were:

1. Tell us about any planning and/or teaching practices which originated duringyour involvement in CTLM and/or SAPP which you are currently using in yourteaching of mathematics. (Please attach a copy of one of your recent mathsplanning files.)


2. Have there been further changes in your planning and/or teaching of mathematicswhich you have undertaken yourself to enhance your teaching of mathematicssince completing CTLM and/or SAPP? If so, please describe briefly.

3. What support for your teaching of mathematics have you and your colleaguesreceived at the school level since completing CTLM and/or SAPP? If no support,what challenges have you faced since completing CTLM and/or SAPP?

Artefacts

As mentioned above, teachers were asked to tell us about their current practice and toprovide an artefact such as planning notes as an example or to illustrate what theymeant.

Data analysis processes and techniques

As a summary of the data collected, Fig. 1 presents the timing of data collection toolsand techniques used in relation to each teacher’s participation in CTLM and in aSAPP team.

Miles and Huberman (1984) aptly describe “qualitative analysis [as] a continuousand iterative enterprise” (p. 23) involving “three concurrent flows of activity: datareduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification” (p. 21).

To begin, the original SAPP files for the three teachers were retrieved. Eachdigital portfolio was inspected several times with two purposes: to identify theteacher’s specific aspect of teaching in mathematics chosen as the focus for theirprofessional learning; and to note the ways in which the teacher had enacted thisfocus as artefacts in the digital portfolios doing the SAPP project. This processreduced the volume of data present in narratives and as video footage ofclassroom practice into manageable units. These data were then tabulated, pro-viding a summary of each teacher’s SAPP focus and activities exemplifying theenactment of it. The researcher also read summaries of lesson observations andrelated semi-structured interview data for these teachers from visits that occurredduring the action research period.

201020092008J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D Jul Aug

Emma

Lana

Leonie

Key Participation in CTLM Project Before & After Chart

Participation in SAPP team Post-research open-ended questions Entries into SAPP (digital portfolio) Artefacts Focus group meeting

Fig. 1 Overview of timing of data collection for each teacher profiled

136 A. Scott et al.

Next, the data gathered a number of months after each teacher’s involvement in aSAPP team were analysed. This process involved multiple steps because two teach-ers, Lana and Leonie, opted to be interviewed together while Emma chose to respondin writing to the same open-ended questions. We acknowledge that it would havebeen better if the same technique to gather these data had been used throughout. Ourpreference was to use interviews. However, because of Emma’s workload we revertedto a written response. We also acknowledge that interviewing Lana and Leonietogether may have elicted different responses than if individual interviews had beenused. However, the advantage of a dual interview was that they reminded each otherof context and events to some degree, and this we felt made for more nuancedresponses. Having known each teacher for some time we doubted that the jointinterview inhibited their responses to our questions. First, the conversations audio-recorded during semi-structured interviews with two teachers were transcribed. Atthis point, there were three word documents with teachers’ responses to the open-ended questions posed. These responses were read several times and segments of textspecifically concerning the teacher’s original SAPP focus were coded as performed incontent analysis (Cohen et al., 2007). These coded segments of text were rereadagainst the specific SAPP focus for relevance. Finally, the artefacts were examined inlight of the respective teacher’s comments to see how these related to the self-selectedSAPP focus and intended/enacted practice. With these two data banks, one fromwhen each teacher was involved with the original SAPP project and the secondconsisting of the follow up data collected 8–18 months after the first, the researchquestions could then be addressed.

A similar process of content analysis was performed using the teachers’ responsesto the third open-ended question posed to address the second research question. Toreiterate, these data were also tabulated, making it possible to see the commonalitiesand emerging themes across the teachers’ responses. Throughout the data analysisprocess patterns were noted in response to considering the following two questions:What are these data telling? What aren’t these data telling? Following the initial datareduction and display undertaken mainly by the author, who was on study leave andavailable to commence the process, all three authors independently reviewed theprocess of analysis, checked the reduced data sets, and then jointly contributed to theprocess of drawing conclusions and verification.

Results and discussion

In this section, we begin by presenting descriptive profiles for each of the threeteachers who were representative of a group of early career teachers participating in aSAPP team. As mentioned earlier, one of the central tasks for improving the qualityof teaching in early career teachers is to extend and refine repertoire in curriculum,instruction, and assessment (Feiman-Nemser, 2001). Each early career teacher’s self-selected focus aligned to this central task. Each profile identifies the self-selected focifor professional learning during their participation in a SAPP team and draws on fourdata sources: the digital portfolio; lesson observations during the participants’ in-volvement in the SAPP team; the responses to the open-ended questions posed some8–18 months after their participation in SAPP; and the artefacts provided by teachers.


Profiles capture the essence of the teachers’ perceptions of their own practiceregarding the specific focus. In relating these we address the first research question:What evidence is there of continued attention, in the views and espoused practices ofthese early career teachers, to their self-selected SAPP focus for teaching of math-ematics some 8–18 months following their participation in a SAPP team?

Later in the article we turn to the second research question: Which factors eithersupported or sustained the teachers’ self-selected focus for teaching of mathematics,and which impeded or prohibited these teachers from acting in their “ideal” ways?Relevant insights will be gained by again examining the initial SAPP materialdeveloped by the teacher co-researchers, and their responses to the third questionasked of them 8–18 months after their SAPP involvement concluded.

Continuation of practice

Profile 1 - Lana

During Lana’s participation in a SAPP team she set out “to use effective questioningduring share-time to draw a lesson together.” Her reflection in her first entry ac-knowledged the limitations of the questions she posed at that time. Typically herquestioning technique required students only to state what they had done during thelesson. She clearly wanted to do more than this and over time she tried differentstrategies. For example, Lana used a question die2 to generate questions and promotediscussion about the focus of the lesson with the Year 1 students. She then realisedthat in order to promote discussions about the content she needed to be clear about themathematical focus of the lesson herself. Subsequently, the planning for each lessonincluded a specific mathematical focus. Further, she began to explicitly tell thestudents what the focus was at the start of the lesson, wrote it on the board, andreferred to it throughout the lesson. This meant that she was “stopping during a lessonto discuss something that a student may have discovered” and not necessarily waitingto share these at the end.

Eighteen months later following maternity leave, Lana worked on a part-time basisproviding extension activities in mathematics with a group of eight Year 3 students.She explained that having a clear focus, and making sure that the students also knewit, was important to “bring out the language and get the students to make questions topromote discussion about the topic” had become a key part of her lessons now. Shementioned her use of the question die. “At this level I get the children to come up withquestions on the topic to put more responsibility back onto them,” reiterating ateaching technique she had used prior to her initial SAPP engagement, but now usingthis technique with a clearer focus of how it could further a key aim of her teaching.

Lana’s belief prior to her SAPP involvement of the ineffectiveness of questions sheused to conclude mathematics lessons was the catalyst for important professionallearning and led to several changes in her practice which were apparent many monthslater. She grew to appreciate the importance of having a clear mathematical focus for

2 A question die is a teaching aid which has either words such as why, how, if or short phrases such as Doall … have …? or When is … important? inscribed on each face of the die to assist in the generation ofquestions and discussion.

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each lesson and the need to vary her questioning technique by using a question die ina new way. She now realised the value of asking questions and discussing key pointswith students as these arose throughout the lesson, rather than waiting for theconclusion of the lesson.

Profile 2 – Leonie

Leonie, at the same school as Lana, wanted to “improve teaching problem solvingand worded problems.” Comments recorded in her initial SAPP digital portfolioindicated that her view of how to teach problem solving changed from consideringit as a discrete topic or lesson, to viewing problem solving as an integral aspect ofmany lessons. She came to believe that in order to teach problem solving the teachermust do three key things: understand the type of task or problem being used; useeffective questions; and use appropriate concrete materials with children. Her reflec-tive comments from the SAPP data suggested that she began to think about theproblem or task which she intended to use in her lesson more deeply than she hadearlier. She had reflected on the following questions: “Where is the unknown aspectfor children? Is it at the start, middle, or end of the problem?” Her planning showedthat she had started to incorporate concrete materials and thinkboards instead of justhaving students complete worksheets. She also listed a few key questions to use ineach lesson, such as, How did you work that out? Can you think of another way to dothis?

Eighteen months later, Leonie identified and discussed four features of her currentpractice: questioning technique; use of concrete materials; using a variety of tasktypes; and a new template for planning lessons. Clearly all of these could be identifiedas important issues in her original SAPP data on which she had begun to work. In thepost-SAPP interview she said, “I use questioning throughout the maths lesson, forexample, today they were playing a game which involved counting on. I noticed thatsome weren’t using an efficient strategy so I asked them some questions: Can youthink of a more efficient strategy that you can use?” Later she mentioned usingconcrete materials. She explained, “just this morning we were learning about time. Ibrought in the [set of] little clock faces so that the children could move the handsthemselves before they wrote down their answers. It just becomes second nature touse concrete materials.” This quote illustrates her continued focus on the use ofconcrete materials beyond the time of her participation SAPP. Finally, Leonie dis-cussed how the previous year the whole staff had worked on planning and developingtemplates for mathematics planning. She pointed out key aspects in the mathematicsplanners for three topics taught recently. These included a specific mathematics focusfor the lesson, related vocabulary, a selection of problem-based activities, and a seriesof key questions.

In reviewing Leonie’s profile it is evident that she had acquired new insights andskills about teaching problem solving in mathematics lessons and that these hadbecome integral to her planning and practice. Although these were positive outcomes,and could be seen prefigured in the original SAPP data, the most striking change inLeonie was the increased level of self-confidence observed in her during the inter-view. In the past, when encouraged to share her thoughts in a small group discussion,she had either refrained or agreed with whatever Lana had said. However, on this


occasion, Leonie was the dominant contributor and spoke proudly of her experiences.It seemed that she realised that these changes in her practice were worth talking aboutas she knew she was implementing aspects of the advice presented during theprofessional learning project.

Although Lana and Leonie commenced with different SAPP foci, in the end therewere similarities in their professional learning profiles. Both came to believe it wasimportant to have a clear mathematical focus for each lesson, and felt they had learnthow to compose and use effective questions to promote meaningful discussionsduring lessons. They learnt about the interrelatedness of these aspects of teachingmathematics as a result of their shared reflections on practice. Of course, this waswhat we had hoped would happen; that SAPP teachers in pairs at the same school,and across schools, would share insights, support each other, and develop reflectivepractices through their participation in a SAPP team.

Profile 3 – Emma

When Emma joined us in a SAPP team in 2008 she admitted that she had assumed thepractices of many of the experienced staff at her school instead of implementing theknowledge she gained as part of her university coursework, because “the experiencedteachers seemed to value the completion of worksheets” in their mathematics lessons.However, her willingness to challenge herself indicated that she wanted to do thingsdifferently. Emma focussed on using questions to deepen students’ ability to talkmathematically and reflect on their mathematical thinking. Examination of data withinher SAPP entries confirmed an increase in frequency and variety of questions includedin her planning for lessons which Emma noted “specifically draw out the lesson’sfocus.” As part of Emma’s critical self-reflections in her final November 2008 entry,Emma wrote that she was “confident to stop and take advantage of ‘teachable moments’rather than just pulling everything together at the end of the lesson.” Recorded fieldnotes of observations of Emma’s lessons corroborated these claims.

Mid-way through her involvement in SAPP, it became evident from both her ownSAPP notes and classroom observations that Emma was using “hands on” activitiesinstead of worksheets, and encouraging students to verbally articulate their mathe-matical thinking all the time, to the point that there was no evidence of written workin their mathematics books. Following a discussion with Emma about the value ofallowing children to represent their thinking in a variety of modes and formats, shestarted experimenting with thinkboards, round robin placemats, and specificallydesigned worksheets to guide students to use models, drawings, and words to recordand represent their thinking. By the end of the first year of the program, it was clearthat Emma thought that she had made positive gains as noted in her SAPP entry:

My foci for the SAPP research project were Effective questioning techniques andClassroom discourse and Reflective practice. I felt, and continue to feel, that thesethings go hand in hand. Effective questioning helps children to be more explicitlyaware of what the teacher’s focus for the lesson is and also helps them to see purposein what they are learning. If they are being prompted by ‘good’ questions, thechildren are more likely to speak confidently about their learning and reflect on itin a number of ways including pictorial representations, written reflections, compar-ison charts, videotaped and audio-taped oral reflections.

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Emma continued her participation in SAPP in 2009. While continuing her focus onquestioning she added helping students see the mathematics in real-life experiences.From observations of Emma’s lessons over time, it became clear that Emma utilisedopen-ended tasks and the contexts for these were linked to real-life uses of mathe-matics. When engaging with these tasks, students often worked in pairs with a variety ofmaterials to represent their understandings in different ways. There were clear referencesby Emma to the mathematical focus when speaking with students throughout the lesson;questions were generally carefully framed to engage and challenge students; and onmost occasions Emma built on students’ ideas and strategies and encouraged them toexplain their thinking. Also included as SAPP entries were her annotations on selectedstudents’ work samples identifying misconceptions and/or new insights gained andaudio files of discussions with individuals about their learning.

Ten months later, Emma responded voluntarily in writing by return email to theinquiry about her current teaching of mathematics in a combined Year 5 and 6 class, achange from her previous experience teaching students in the early years of school-ing. As stated above, for two years Emma deliberately worked and reflected onrefining her questioning techniques and her ability to promote purposeful discussionswith students about their mathematical understandings during lessons. So, it was notsurprising that this aspect of her practice was a prominent point in her reflection anumber of months later. She wrote:

The most obvious and effective change [in my teaching of mathematics] wasmy ability to question children about their learning better. I was able toincorporate effective questions into my planning and everyday practice andfind the confidence to ask questions to bring big ideas together at any timeduring the lesson rather than waiting until the end as I used to. This has also hadan impact on the kids’ abilities to reflect and comment on their learning and thestrategies they use. (Email communication, 30 July 2010)

Reviewing the 2008 SAPP entries of video footage of Emma’s questioning andprobing techniques with those collected at the end of 2009 made it possible to seeclearly the development which had taken place over that period of time. Communi-cation exchanges between Emma and the students had become fluid and focussed onthe mathematics being studied at the time. The focus of the lesson and the mathe-matical language used were clear from the start and were reiterated throughout thelesson. Further evidence of the transference of this practice into Emma’s day-to-dayroutine was the inclusion of key questions to be asked in lessons as a feature of herlesson planning. Despite the changes in the year levels Emma taught, a series ofcombined classes Preparatory/1, Year 1/2, and Year 5/6, there was a noticeableincreased level of sophistication in her planning and this was reflective of her specificSAPP focus. For example, her planning included an explicit mathematical focus, a listof related vocabulary, and key questions to be used in the unit.

Despite her achievements, Emma indicated that her professional learning journeywas still in progress. She wrote:

I just moved to 5/6 from 1/2 so I am currently looking very carefully at theirCTLM folder and asking many questions along the way! I have also had theopportunity to watch some lessons run by the other 5/6 teachers. As a school


[staff] we have been very committed to continuing our learning in professionallearning team meetings through the sharing and discussion of ideas and expe-riences. (Email, 30 July 2010)

These comments suggest that Emma had been exploring, developing, and sharingnew information and skills through her own initiative and in collaboration withcolleagues. Hence, the processes of reflection and enactment (Clarke & Hollings-worth, 2002) seemed to be on going. Overall, Emma indicated that in her mind,changes made for SAPP were now both embedded in her teaching, but at the sametime, still being nuanced.

Insights based on the profiles

Despite the differences in the three teachers and their contexts, there were commonfindings. Each teacher initially used the set of protocols as expected to guide themthrough a small action research project focussed on a personally significant aspect oftheir teaching in mathematics. Each gathered relevant data and analysed thesesuccessfully and achieved positive professional learning outcomes. Signs of theprofessional learning had filtered through into their practice. Changes in practicewere observed in lessons and evident in planning notes and other artefacts such asstudents’ work samples and/or classroom displays. There was also evidence ofsustained impact on practice months later. These findings are evidence that earlycareer teachers benefit from Feiman-Nemser’s (2001) appeal to study the craft ofteaching. These early career teachers studied an aspect of their teaching in mathe-matics and extended and refined their instructional repertoire in this discipline area.

Another key similarity was that all deepened their understandings of themselves asteachers of mathematics and/or of the craft of teaching. It illustrates Malara and Zan’s(2008) model showing how maintaining a view of teacher as decision maker has acrucial role in changing teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and emotions. In other words,although each started with a single focus, each realised that in order to refine oneaspect, other elements of their teaching also needed attention. For example, in orderto use questions effectively a teacher needs to consider at least three interrelatedelements of a lesson. These include: having a clear mathematical focus; selecting anappropriate, sufficiently challenging task or activity to provide opportunities for ameaningful discussion; and posing a variety of question types so that students use arange of thinking skills (recalling, explaining, predicting, checking, justifying, eval-uating, and generalising). Of greatest significance in this finding is the power of self-discovery in the unearthing of the interrelatedness of these elements in these earlycareer teachers’ practice, a key message that we will return to and elaborate further inthis article.

Factors that supported or inhibited change of practice

We now present teachers’ views to address the second question: Which factors eithersupported or sustained the teachers’ self-selected focus for teaching of mathematicsand which impeded or prohibited these teachers from acting in their “ideal” ways?

142 A. Scott et al.

Perceived supportive factors

A review of teachers’ responses to the third open-ended question posed revealed threekey factors/themes among many considered to have supported and/or sustainedteachers’ efforts in the professional practice. Below each is discussed and excerptsfrom teachers’ responses illustrate respective points.

Sharing the experience with one or more colleagues

Teachers valued opportunities to experiment with and discuss aspects of teachingwith other educators (maths leaders, fellow teachers, researchers). Although frequen-cy of opportunities varied across schools, most teachers reported observing lessonsdelivered by fellow teachers, having a team teaching experience, or gaining insightsbecause of discussions in professional learning team meetings. One comment madeby Leonie seemed to capture the essence of the varied experiences:

Team teaching activities …[my colleague] was very supportive and encourag-ing. I used this experience as a non-formal mentoring opportunity to watch hermodel good questions, ideas for lessons, as well as being able to ask forfeedback on my own teaching and questioning.

It seems that the benefit of sharing the experience with others provides opportu-nities for new insights and affirmation of experimentation in collegial contexts. Thisis one form of ongoing professional learning that is self-generative and resonates withthe goals of effective professional development (OECD, 2005).

Closely related to this point is Lana’s statement:

It helps to have another person to do SAPP with because Leonie and I wouldoften talk about the maths that we did and so we built up a shared understand-ing. So the more people that you have on staff who have a shared understandingof the language the richer the experience becomes. That was a help for mebecause I did attend, then I was away for a year, now … I've come back but Idon't feel like there's a massive gap.

It seems that the experience was beneficial in two ways. First, the joint expe-rience provided a context for focussed professional conversations about mathe-matics and their teaching, which in turn led to the teachers developing a commonlanguage. Second, the opportunity to join in professional discussions understand-ing the common language seemed to facilitate Lana’s return to work after a periodof leave.

Establishing workable structures

Considering the demands made on teachers’ time beyond the contact hours forteaching students, it is understandable that all the SAPP teachers appreciated well-organised professional learning team meetings which promoted productive profes-sional dialogue. Another useful structure was having a user-friendly mathematics’


planning template. Although templates varied across contexts, each identified themathematical focus, suitable resources for teaching, and assessment. All but oneincluded a list of questions to promote a focussed discussion with students. Changesin staffing took place in both schools and, in each case, the maths leader left theschool at the end of 12 months. Nevertheless, the event had minimal impact because,as Leonie said:

Luckily, the [School Maths Leader] had already set up all the structures so wellthat we coped without someone.

This shows the advantage of having a dedicated person in the role establishingstructures so that teachers are supported from the beginning of the professionallearning initiative process.

As previously mentioned, the data collection process involved teachers takingvideo snippets of their classroom practice. Several teachers “acquired a taste” fortaking video snippets especially to capture and reflect on students’ thinking duringmathematics lessons. Emma wrote in her reflection:

Keep the camera handy because you never know when you might use it!

Prior to the action research none of these teachers had taken video snippets of theirclassroom practice. However, Emma’s comment suggests that the practice becameintegral to her routine, possibly even a habit. Again, it is illustrative of how changesin practice influence beliefs and emotions (Malara & Zan, 2008).

Easy access to resources

Related to the previous point, is facilitating the implementation of sound planninginto effective teaching by having resources readily available. Teachers were using avariety of equipment and resources because they knew what resources and equipmentwere available, where these were located, and/or who to ask.

Leonie said:

I use more concrete materials. There are so many maths resources that we havein the school now you can just bring them all out whereas before it didn't comeinto your mind to bring in concrete materials.

Emma wrote:

I use a variety of reflective methods including round robin, placemats, specif-ically designed worksheets to get children to write, draw, model and explain.

Interestingly Emma by this stage did not feel the pressure she had originally felt toonly use worksheets (see above) as many teachers were now using the activitiessuggested during CTLM professional learning days instead of relying on worksheets.This shift in view and practice was possibly due to the whole-staff participation inCTLM and their subsequent collective commitment to using concrete materials and avariety of recording methods in preference to having students complete worksheets inmathematics lessons. Both of these entries indicate major changes in practice given

144 A. Scott et al.

that prior to the action research both taught mathematics by having students completeworksheets.

Perceived inhibiting factors

In contrast to the extended and varied responses from teachers about the supportivefactors, there were no comments from teachers about the challenges they faced. Thereare several possible explanations for the lack of challenges identified by teachers. Forexample, the implementation of effective structures at the start of the SAPP projectmay have minimised the number of problems, or by the time of the final datacollection these may already have been addressed and forgotten. In addition, becauseteachers self-selected the focus for their action research and acted on their self-reflections on practice they remained in control and possibly addressed issues asthey arose. If this was the case for one or more teachers, then the action research anduse of SAPP protocols/process demonstrates one way professional knowledge iscreated whilst teaching through experimentation and problem solving along withreflecting on activity and process (Ruthven & Goodchild, 2008).

Conclusion

The professional learning journeys of teachers can be likened to planning andundertaking any journey in life. It can be an individualistic endeavour or a jointventure. It has the potential to be a daunting or an exhilarating experience, or amixture of the two. The three early career teachers profiled here were not only willingto share their enthusiasm and interest for teaching mathematics, but were also ready toexperiment and explore new approaches with others.

In this case, the digital professional portfolio was the tool (SAPP) the teachers anduniversity researchers used to capture and revisit each teacher’s professional journey.In a way, recording the entries in the digital portfolio provided the teachers with aprocess and space for self-reflection and another space for wrestling with commonchallenges. The SAPP team provided each teacher with an audience with whom eachcould share and reflect and an opportunity for nurturing unique professional relation-ships which crossed classroom, school, and tertiary boundaries. As issues arose, thesewere discussed as online communications via email posted to the group, or shared andreflected on in person when we met. Members of the team viewed each teacher’s videorecordings and related artefacts and gave each other feedback. Perhaps, some evenpondered, What would I do in that situation? In a sense, these early career teacherswere ready to respond to the call posed by OECD (2005) and Feiman-Nemser (2001)to improve and sustain effective teaching. More importantly, they showed that it waspossible. We also noted the contextual supportive structures which sustained theprofessional learning and helped teachers to embed these practices into their routines.

Although it is always helpful to read about positive outcomes and how these wereachieved, it is equally necessary to ask, What does this mean for others such as otherearly career teachers, teacher educators, researchers, providers of professional


learning programs and school leaders? Two messages applicable to all are: Empowerearly career teachers; and explore issues with teachers as they experience them intheir classrooms. By doing so, we enable them to use action research to drive theirprofessional learning further. We have had moderate success using the SAPP teamapproach. We are currently investigating whether or not modifications to the SAPPprotocols facilitate teams of professionals to attend to a shared goal.

Acknowledgment We acknowledge gratefully the support of the Catholic Education Office (Melbourne)and that of Gerard Lewis and Paul Sedunary in particular in the funding of this research.

Appendix 1

Overview of process and set of protocols for the Self-Analysis Professional Portfolio(SAPP)

Self-Analysis Professional Portfolio (SAPP)

A Self-Analysis Professional Portfolio (SAPP) will comprise three folders compiledover time giving evidence of reflections on a specific aspect of your practice, plus afourth folder which will have a reflective summary of the material you have compiledin the first three folders.

The first three folders will each include a completed template composed ofreflective commentaries, short video clips of your own classroom, and may alsocontain samples of students’ work, digital photos, and other material you choose toinclude. Each of these folders will represent a snapshot of your thoughts and actionsabout your chosen area of interest. This will occur at three points throughout the year;once each at the start, middle and end.

In early November, teachers will complete the fourth and final summary folder,which contains an important Before and After chart. There are also a number of shortquestions. With these devices, we have tried to develop a short and easy template foryou to summarise the information gathered in the earlier three folders. This willrepresent your perceptions of the changes in one aspect of your teaching of mathe-matics over the duration of your SAPP.

The following pages outline the crucial files which we have devised to guide youthrough this process.

The first three templates

We have copied here the second of the three templates that we envisage you usingduring SAPP. These templates are very similar to each other.

In the actual second template, the following colours are used to emphasise some issues:

& The red type at the top suggests that you might like to choose to use a digitalaudio file to record your thoughts rather than type into the template.

146 A. Scott et al.

& The [blue] type gives some explanation of why we have included certain itemsand / or suggestions on how you might respond.

& The yellow highlight identifies the key bit of data gathering we think makes thisexercise different to other data collection techniques. Hence, although we suggestyou might like to collect some data by scanning student work, etc, the one thingwe want you to do is for you to take some video snippets of what is happening inyour classroom.

In the following copy, we use purple text to indicate some possible responses.

SAPP template 2 – MID-PROJECT ENTRY

The following template is written assuming that you will complete it by typing inyour responses and please note that dot points are acceptable. However, you maychoose to complete your responses verbally by making a digital recording and savingthat audio file into this folder.

Name:Date:

Aspect of teaching

Identify an aspect of your teaching practice which you wish to work on.Consider the suggested emphases on teaching practice below and choose one.

Tick one of them.(This is probably what you ticked in Template1, but you might have changed your

mind).

Particular emphasis on teaching practice related to:

□ Effective and appropriate use of learning technologies (ICT)

□ Effective questioning techniques

□ Working mathematically

□ Assessment practices

□ Rich learning tasks

□ Contextualize learning and make connections across areas of learning

□ Other teacher's choice

Teaching practice focus

The above aims might not capture the specificity of what you wish to work on in yourteaching.

Restate the above aim in your own words so that you are clear about what youwish to address and the emphases you wish to give.

I wish to focus on …


Example 1

If you had ticked the 1st dot point in the Table above, you might want to say thefollowing in your own words:

I wish to focus on the uses of ICT for teaching and/or learning in my mathe-matics lessons.

Or

Example 2

If ticking the 6th dot pointRestated in own words: I wish to focus on helping students to see the mathematics

within everyday contexts and across areas of learning.Is this the same focus you had originally as written in Template 1? If so just copy

and paste. BUT you might wish to change the wording that you used in Template 1?There is no correct response here but we’d like to know if you have a change in focus,why have you changed?

Fleshing out what you will do

You’ll do the following over about a week. The key is to select a lesson(s) in whichyou’ll do the digital recording (point 3), and work back and forward from that time.

1. Describe what you currently do in this area. Write a short summary (200–400words). Be specific and give examples. [This might change after your reflectionson the first entry, but if not just copy and paste]

2. Consider and respond in a couple of sentences each to the following questions:[Again this might change from your first entry, or if not just copy and paste]

a. How and/or what are you aiming to change in your current teaching practice?b. What do you think you might do to fulfill this aim/goal or wish?

3. Digitally record two/three episodes (60 second snapshots of classroom practice)as evidence of how and what you are doing in your teaching in this area. [Wethink this is the key data collection activity which will help you think creativelyabout what you are presently doing in your teaching, and give you ideas aboutwhat you might do.]

4. There are two other things which might help you think about your digital videorecording:

a. Scan three student work samples, with your own brief annotations, to showcurrent activity in this area.

b. Scan related planning from your work program with highlighted key sectionswhich show current activity in this area.

5. Reflect on your digital video recording (and the student work samples andhighlights in your work program if you did these), and write three sentences orso of reflection on points 1 and 2 again in light of your data.

148 A. Scott et al.

Recording your files and deliberations

Save all of these files in a folder, labeled SAPP2 on the memory stick provided.

Checklist for: SAPP2 folder for MID-PROJECT Entry

Yes / no SAPP template entry noting changes in your teaching practice completed

Yes / no Video clips work in Windows Media Player

Yes / no Student work samples with brief annotations included (if you did these)

Yes / no Highlighted excerpts from planning saved (if you did these)

Yes / no SAPP2 folder created on memory stick and all files saved in it

The fourth summary template

In this template, after you have collected three sets of data on an issue of teaching whichyou want to reflect on, we have tried to give guidance on how to bring it all together.

Before and After Chart – NOVEMBER

Name:Date:

Aspect of teaching

Restate aspect of teaching practice you have focused on

Throughout this project, I specifically focused on the following teaching prac-tices: (Copy and paste from the table in Template 3 the project aim you chose.)

Teaching practice focus

Reflect back to what you wrote in your own words on your ‘focus for your teaching’.What change(s) of focus, if any, have been important to you? Why did you make

this change(s)?

Analysis and summary

Complete the Before and After chartIn the following chart, identify one or two changes in your teaching.Summarise using the data from SAPP what you had been doing and what you are

doing now.

My goalwas to…

BeforeSAPP1I would …

AfterSAPP3I am …

Give evidence andindicate from whichfolder SAPP1,SAPP2 or SAPP3

Link to an experienceshared by SAPPmembers or other factor?

Significance ofoutcome/achievementfor you


As a result of your participation in this project describe two highlights:1.2.Describe all of the factors that led to these positive outcomes.Describe any factors that prevented you from achieving your goal.What could be done to mitigate these blocking factors?What advice would you offer others undertaking the SAPP project in the

future?Please check that you have saved all your files on the memory stick supplied and

made a back up copy elsewhere. Then give the memory stick to the ACU researchteam when you join us for the SAPP celebration mid-November!

References

Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. (2002). Standards for excellence in teaching mathematicsin Australian schools. Adelaide: Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers.

Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (2006). Standards for excellence in teaching mathematicsin Australian schools (Revised edition). Retrieved 15 January, 2007, from www.aamt.edu.au

Carter, K., & Doyle, W. (1996). Personal narrative and life history in learning to teach. In J. Sikula, T.Buttery, & E. Guyton (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 120–142). NewYork: Simon and Schuster Macmillan.

Chamberlin, M. (2009). Teachers' reflections on their mathematical learning experiences in a professionaldevelopment course. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 11, 22–35.

Clarke, D., Downton, A., Roche, A., Clarkson, P., Scott, A., McDonough, A., et al. (2009). ContemporaryTeaching and Learning of Mathematics Project 2008: Report to CEO Melbourne. Melbourne: Aus-tralian Catholic University.

Clarke, D. J., & Hollingsworth, H. (2002). Elaborating a model of teacher professional growth. Teachingand Teacher Education, 18(8), 947–967.

Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education (6th ed.). London:Routledge.

Connelly, M., & Clandinin, J. (1985). Personal practical knowledge and the modes of knowing: Relevancefor teaching and learning. In E. Eisner (Ed.), Learning and teaching the ways of knowing (pp. 174–198). Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1990). Instructional policy into practice: "The power of the bottom over the top".Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 12(3), 239–247.

Feiman-Nemser, S. (2001). From preparation to practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustainteaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1013–1055.

Grossman, P. (1995). Teachers' knowledge. In L. Anderson (Ed.), International encyclopedia of teachingand teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 20–24). Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.

Gudmundsdottir, S. (2001). Narrative research on school practice. In V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook ofresearch on teaching (4th ed., pp. 226–240). Washington, DC: American Educational ResearchAssociation.

Guskey, T. (2002). Professional development and teacher change. Teachers and Teaching: Theory andPractice, 8(3), 381–391.

Malara, N., & Zan, R. (2008). The complex interplay between theory in mathematics education andteachers' practice: Reflections and examples. In L. English (Ed.), Handbook of international researchin mathematics education (2nd ed., pp. 535–560). New York: Routledge.

McDonough, A., Clarkson, P., & Scott, A. (2010). Teacher change in response to a professional learningproject. In L. Sparrow, B. Kissane, & C. Hurst (Eds.), Shaping the future of mathematics education:Proceedings of the 33rd annual conference, Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia(Vol. 2, pp. 391–398). Fremantle: MERGA.

Miles, M., & Huberman, A. (1984). Qualitative data analysis. Newbury: Sage.Muir, T., & Beswick, K. (2007). Stimulating reflection on practice: Using the supportive classroom

reflection process. Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, 8, 74–93. Special Issue.

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http://www.aamt.edu.au

OECD (2005). Teachers matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers Retrieved 28 June2010, from http://www.oecd.org/document/9/0,3343,en_2649_39263231_11969545_1_1_1_1,00.html

Punch, K. (2009). Introduction to research methods in education. London: Sage.Ruthven, K., & Goodchild, S. (2008). Linking researching with teaching: Towards synergy of scholarly and

craft knowledge. In L. English (Ed.), Handbook of international research in mathematics education(2nd ed., pp. 561–588). New York: Routledge.

Scott, A., Clarkson, P., & McDonough, A. (2010). The development and implications of ‘SAPP: SelfAnalysis Professional Portfolio’ Annual conference of the American Education Research Association.Retrieved from http://aera.enoah.com/DesktopModules/AERA_Repository/DisplayFile.aspx?DOCID06660&VID014038&ClientID0bAjax

Shepherd, M. (2006). Using a learning journal to improve professional practice: A journey of personal andprofessional self-discovery. Reflective Practice, 7(3), 333–348.

Sowder, J. (2007). The mathematical education and development of teachers. In F. Lester (Ed.), Secondhandbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (Vol. 1, pp. 157–224). Charlotte, NC:National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.


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Professional learning and action research: Early career teachers reflect on their practice

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