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Tracing the evolution of teachers' mathematical knowledge and pedagogy through programming: Learning from Scratch

Saunders, Piers; (2022) Tracing the evolution of teachers' mathematical knowledge and pedagogy through programming: Learning from Scratch. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

This thesis is based on research to explore the role of primary school teachers’ mathematical and pedagogical knowledge in their engagement with computer-based microworlds that formed part of ScratchMaths (SM). SM is a two-year mathematics and computing curriculum designed for pupils aged nine to eleven years old. The aims of the research were to trace the evolution of teachers’ mathematical knowledge, as they taught SM microworlds designed for exploration and reasoning about place value, variable and angle through computer programming. The study adopted a multiple-case study approach with augmenting teacher episodes situated in the English primary school setting. The thirteen Year 6 teachers of the study were selected from national participants of the second year of the two-year SM intervention. Data collection involved video-recorded classroom observations, audio-recorded post-lesson semi-structured teacher interviews, and ‘think aloud’ while engaging with computer-based tasks. The conceptual framework for the thesis incorporated the Mathematical Pedagogical Technology Knowledge (MPTK) framework and the Instrumental Orchestration model. The findings reveal the knowledge required to teach at the intersection of programming and mathematics, and crucially, how the ideas mediate and are mediated by engagement with the SM curriculum. The findings also illustrate how teaching mathematics through computer programming requires the teacher to bridge between the computing and the mathematics domains and how some teachers managed to do this while creating new connections within and between the knowledge domains. The study contributes to the literature of teachers’ mathematical knowledge of place value, variable, and angle as well as teachers’ ability to (re-) express mathematics through computer programming. The thesis makes an original contribution to the literature with the specification of a theoretical model for analysing teachers’ knowledge for teaching mathematics through programming in the primary setting.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification: Ph.D
Title: Tracing the evolution of teachers' mathematical knowledge and pedagogy through programming: Learning from Scratch
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request.
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10147323
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