Storied beliefs : looking at novice elementary teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics through two different sources, math stories and the IMAP survey

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between beliefs found using the Integrated Mathematics and Pedagogy (IMAP) project beliefs survey and the beliefs found in math stories of eight novice (less than two years teaching) elementary school teachers. The stories were coded for the same beliefs used in the IMAP survey. As in the IMAP survey, the strength of evidence of the belief was assigned numerical values, zero through three, indicating virtually no evidence to very strong evidence respectively. Results showed that specific beliefs could be found in math stories, yet not always at the same level of strength as the IMAP survey. This indicates that each conveys differing views on the teachers' beliefs, and thus provides more detailed pictures of the teachers' beliefs. The details include a sense of the trajectory of development of teachers' beliefs from student to teacher that the IMAP survey does not. The math stories also provide evidence of the role of emotion in the formation and entrenchment of beliefs.