"My project looks in particular at how continuing education programmes for teachers can help them develop the necessary skills they need to use modelling in the classroom", writes Naylor to inn.no.
Pamela Joanne Helder Naylor's field of study is mathematics. Teachers' use of modelling means demonstrating to students how to solve a problem step by step, or creating and using simplified models to explain complex concepts.
In mathematics, modelling is the process of translating a problem from the real world into a mathematical language so that it can be solved and an understanding or an answer be obtained.
The goal is to make teaching more practical and understandable for students.
"My thesis attempts to answer two main questions: what helps or hinders teachers from learning modelling through the Norwegian continuing education programme? How can this understanding be used to design an effective professional development course to support teachers in building these competencies?"
The title of Naylor's thesis is "Mathematical modelling with Norwegian primary school teachers". She has completed her doctoral work at the PhD programme in Educational Sciences.
The key findings of the doctoral work:
- There is currently a lack of shared understanding and general knowledge about modelling among practicing primary school teachers.
- The textbooks most often used by practicing primary school teachers have two main issues: they do not provide worthwhile modelling tasks and if they did, teachers currently may not have the knowledge they need to identify or use these tasks.
- A single, short intervention aimed at developing teacher expertise models for modelling can be useful in improving these models, as well as identifying areas for future growth.