1. Issues in classroom research: getting at the subject detail of teacher-student interaction Anne Watson AKU/IED Karachi August 2008

2. What can we learn by researching in classrooms? It is essentially descriptive…. How learning opportunities are organised What the learning environment is like What is entailed in the job of teaching How teachers/students interact What teachers do compared to what they say How teachers manifest their intentions

3. Changes in Mathematics Teaching Project (CMTP) Three school mathematics departments committed to change they way they teach Our mission is to describe what they did and how they did it

4. Data Teachers: –Structured interviews –Semi-structured interviews –Meetings: audio plus field notes –Lesson videos –Questionnaires –Observations Heads of department: –Same as teachers PLUS –Discussions with each other: audio plus field notes Students: –Interviews with sample students (including what they say happens in lessons) –Test scores

5. Classroom research: problems of being there How has my presence altered events? What shall I look for? How shall I look for it?

6. Problems of observation and interview process Ethical issues: observing; filming; parental consent; language; disruption of routine They teach their ‘best’ when watched How to ‘catch’ normal lessons Interpreting what teachers mean in practice when they use certain phrases in interview

7. Long term study: problems of stability School 1: change of HoD; one newly-qualified teacher joined and one experienced teacher left during project; divisive; new HoD had to ‘heal’ the team; three non- specialist teachers; split teaching groups School 2: stable team, in third year one left and three newly-qualified teachers joined; one non-specialist teacher School 3: team was stable; one non-specialist teacher; then HoD promoted to new silly role and someone else took over Students: mobile population; absenteeism Case studies: vulnerable to changes in the schools and outside interference from inspectors, governance etc.

8. Confidentiality problems during research What do I do when I see things I feel uncomfortable about? What to do when teachers have different interpretations of what they have agreed to do? In all schools one or two dissatisfied: ‘I’m not the only one but…’ I worried about the inexperience of teachers v. their enthusiasm for approaches I thought naïve Resolved through cumulative reports to HoDs for discussion with teachers (intervention?)

9. Big problem in analysing observational data! No research question specifically about lessons when we started Ethnographical methods –‘emergence’ of issues – how do they emerge? –theoretical perspective – about what? –phenomenography – what phenomena? –comparative – comparing what?

10. Classroom research is not merely ethnographic What has prompted you to observe? How does that become a framework? In the first year we videod one lesson per teacher and watched them over and over again and read a lot TIMSS, METE, LPS, Doyle Hurrah!! We are interested in students’ experience of the subject matter –syntactic/substantive (Schwab) –discursive/interactive –procedural/conceptual Variation, questions and prompts, example use, relationship between task and activity … In the second year we had an observation schedule to help us focus on maths

11. Maths: task plus pedagogy What is available to be learnt? How is this offered in the task? How is activity shaped by the teacher and students together? Affordances, constraints, attunements (Gibson)– evidence and interpretation

12. What has been said about tasks? Bloom SOLO Cuoco et al. ‘habits of mind’ Questions and prompts Nature of subject: concepts, facts, relationships, methods, properties of mathematical objects, structures, abstractions Ways of working What the teacher appears to be shaping How she appears to shape it (Video)

13. Multiple forms of analysis Write descriptions Content analysis: coding and categorising Identify dimensions in the categories – and subcategories Look again at data for similarities and differences within categories – ensure all are included Consider re-categorising Apply (adapt) existing frameworks Are there clear distinctions, or a continuum? Are there contrasts, or elaborations Develop presentations/tools

14. When we look for what mathematics was being shaped, what did we notice that we had not noticed before? Content of whole class v. individual interactions When did things happen?: e.g. complex -> simple or simple -> complex What aspects of mathematics do non-specialist teachers not do that specialist ones do? Who does what in the development of mathematical ideas? What is the content of participation of students in a range of domains?

15. Further work on data – looking at the shaping of mathematical content Look for contrasts between (years/samples/cases) Look for further elaboration and categories Use tools developed earlier to gather and organise data and hence explore further Generalise

16. Examples from the study

17. What similarities with other subject- teaching?

18. anne.watson@education.ox.ac.uk