Learning opportunities experienced by mathematics teachers: unveiling actions and role of the teacher educator during a formative process

Abstract

Context: One of the research challenges related at the professional learning of mathematics teachers is to understand the importance of the role and actions of the teacher educator during a formative process. Objective: This research seeks to understand what the role was and how the actions of the teacher educator took place, in a process of continuing education with teachers of basic education, about the teaching of patterns and regularities, with a view to providing learning opportunities to the teachers involved. Design: It is a qualitative-interpretative study aligned to an intervention research. Settings and Participants: We developed the research in a formative process involving 33 mathematics teachers and future teachers, and 3 teacher educators. Data collection: We use data from audio and video recordings of planning and enacting of the formative process, and protocols from teachers’ tasks and planning from teacher educators. Results: We found that teacher educators, since planning the formative process, sought to provide opportunities for participating teachers professional learning, since he/she structured the process through professional learning tasks, using videos of mathematics lessons to highlight the classroom practice, as well as encourage discussions among teachers about patterns and regularities in and for the teaching of algebra. Conclusions: We identified that teacher educators played a mediating role in the orchestration of the discussions and an articulator between mathematics and didactics, thus providing opportunities for professional development and the learning of teaching algebra.