Teacher noticing in Taiwan and Germany – What is the role of cultural norms regarding aspects of instructional quality?
Final Report Abstract
The project TaiGer Noticing used cross-cultural contrasting to make visible cultural norms regarding aspects of instructional quality that influence teacher noticing. Germany and Taiwan were chosen for the contrast as a Western and an East-Asian country. Three aspects of instructional quality in mathematics classrooms that are considered central in East Asian as well as Western mathematics education were focused: the use of representations, responding to students’ thinking, and the use of tasks. Noticing regarding these aspects of instructional quality was assessed by means of text-vignettes. Since cultural norms regarding aspects of instructional quality were not only expected to play a role for teacher noticing but also for the researchers’ operationalizations of the construct, the project explicitly focused on the investigation of expert norms. Hence, phase 1 aimed at identifying potentially culture-specific as well as interculturally valid norms of instructional quality. To this end, the bi-national research team designed and implemented an innovative process of concurrent vignette development followed by an expert survey. 18 vignettes representing anticipated breaches of norms were developed by the two national teams – three regarding each aspect of instructional quality in each country. A random sample of mathematics education professors was requested to respond to the vignettes to validate the breaches of a norm as anticipated by the project team members from Taiwan resp. Germany. The findings based on the responses of 24 experts from Germany and 19 experts from Taiwan show that only in 5 of the 18 cases the identified norms could be considered interculturally valid, whereas in 8 cases, the identified norms differed considerably, and thus, they are considered culture-specific. The culture-specific norms that were identified concern all three aspects of instructional quality. With these expert norms as a frame of reference, teacher noticing in Germany and Taiwan was contrasted by means of a survey of approx. 110 in-service mathematics teachers from each country in phase 2. The teachers responded to 12 vignettes that were validated in at least one of the countries. Coding schemes were based on the cultural norms within each country as identified in phase 1. Analyses of the teacher responses also indicate that cultural norms of instructional quality influence their noticing. Therefore, the project results can contribute to answering the major question of what determines teacher noticing. The identified differences and commonalities between the cultures are in line with results from previous research about differences between East Asian and Western cultures in (mathematics) education, supporting the validity of the findings. The project outcomes may inform future research concerning (1) factors influencing teacher noticing, (2) culture-sensitive measurement of teacher noticing, and (3) culturally diverse perspectives on quality mathematics education.
Publications
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Die fachdidaktische Perspektive in der Unterrichtsqualitätsforschung: (bisher) ignoriert, implizit enthalten oder nicht relevant?. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik Beiheft (1), 255-268.
Lindmeier, Anke & Heinze, Aiso
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Do cultural norms influence how teacher noticing is studied in different cultural contexts? A focus on expert norms of responding to students’ mathematical thinking. ZDM – Mathematics Education, 53(1), 165-179.
Dreher, Anika; Lindmeier, Anke; Feltes, Paul; Wang, Ting-Ying & Hsieh, Feng-Jui
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Expert norms for dealing with students’ mathematical thinking in different cultures. In M. Imprasitha, N. Changsri & N. Boonsena (Eds.), Proceedings of the 44th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (S. 227–235). PME
Dreher, A., Lindmeier, A., Feltes, P., Wang, T.-Y. & Hsieh, F.-J.
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Fachspezifität von Unterrichtsqualität – aus der Perspektive der Mathematikdidaktik. Unterrichtswissenschaft, 49(2), 285-292.
Dreher, Anika & Leuders, Timo
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Fruit salad algebra – a comparison of experts’ and mathematics teachers’ noticing. In C. Fernández, S. Llinares, Á. Gutiérrez, & N. Planas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 45th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 3, pp. 251). PME
Larrain, M., Paul, J., Lindmeier, A. Hsieh, F.-J. Wang, T.-Y. & Dreher, A.
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Perspectives of Professors in mathematics education on fruit salad algebra – a comparison between Taiwan and Germany. In C. Fernández, S. Llinares, Á. Gutiérrez, & N. Planas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 45th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 3, pp. 123–130). PME
Wang, T.-Y., Dreher, A., Lindmeier, A. & Hsieh, F.-J.
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The potential of tasks for mathematical learning and its use in instruction – Perspectives of experts from Germany and Taiwan. In C. Fernández, S. Llinares, Á. Gutiérrez, & N. Planas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 45th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 3, pp. 139–146). PME
Lindmeier, A., Wang, T.-Y., Hsieh, F.-J., & Dreher, A.
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Teacher noticing regarding aspects of instructional quality in the mathematics classroom. Teacher Professional Vision: Empirical Perspectives (2024, 11, 25), 101-115. American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Friesen, Marita & Dreher, Anika
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The role of experts' norms of instructional quality for assessing teacher noticing. Teacher Professional Vision: Empirical Perspectives (2024, 11, 25), 64-82. American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Lindmeier, Anke; Paul, Josephine F.; Wang, Ting-Ying; Hsieh, Feng-Jui & Dreher, Anika
