Philipp (2007)

Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs and Affect

• Author: Randolph Philipp
• Book: Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning
• Year: 2007
• Source: http://www.infoagepub.com/products/Second-Handbook-Research-Mathematics-Teaching-Learning

Outline of Headings

• Organization of Chapter
• Working Definitions/Descriptions of Terms
• The State of Research on Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs and Affect at the Publication of the First Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning
  • Brief Summary of A. G. Thompson's 1992 Handbook Chapter on Teachers' Beliefs and Conceptions
  • Brief Summary of McLeod's 1992 Handbook Chapter on Affect
  • Summary of the State of Research on Beliefs and Affect at the Publication of the First Handbook
  • Setting the Context for Mathematics Teacher Education Research Since 1992
    • Occurrence 1: The Acceptance and Infusion of Ideas From the NCTM Standards' Documents Into the Educational Arena
    • Occurrence 2: The Increased Number of Publishing Outlets
    • Occurrence 3: The Increased Politicization of United States Education and Educational Research
    • Occurrence 4: Technological Advances That Support Obtaining and Reporting Research, and Capturing, Editing, and Posting Video for Use When Assessing Teachers' Beliefs and Affect
    • Occurrence 5: The Emergence of Sociocultural and Participatory Theories of Learning
• Research on Teachers' Beliefs Conducted Since 1992
  • What Are Beliefs?
  • Belief Versus Values
  • Belief Versus Knowledge
    • Summary
    • A Comment About Terminology
  • Measuring Beliefs
    • Likert-Scale Surveys
    • An Alternative to Likert-Scale Beliefs Surveys for Large-Scale Data Collection
    • Summary
  • Inconsistent Beliefs and the Role of Context
    • Summary
    • A Stance on Inconsistent Beliefs
  • Changing Beliefs
    • Reflection and Changing Beliefs
    • Two Obstacles to Changing Beliefs: Teachers' Caring and Teachers' Belief That Teaching is Telling
    • Summary
• Teachers' Beliefs, Part II: Four Areas of Research
  • Teachers' Beliefs Related to Students' Mathematical Thinking
    • Elementary School Teachers' Beliefs Related to Students' Mathematical Thinking
    • Preservice Elementary School Teachers' Beliefs Related to Students' Mathematical Thinking
    • Secondary School Teachers' Beliefs Related to Students' Mathematical Thinking
    • Summary
  • Teachers' Beliefs Related to or Changed by Use of Mathematics Curricula
    • Summary
  • Teacher's Beliefs About Technology
    • Summary of Teachers' Beliefs About Technology
  • Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs Related to Gender
• Research on Teachers' Affect Since 1992
  • Relationship Between Affect and Achievement
  • Mathematics Teachers' Affect
    • Summary of Studies of Elementary School Teachers' Mathematics Anxiety
  • Frameworks for Considering Affect: Extending Mandler's Framework
  • Mathematical Intimacy, Integrity, and Meta-Affect
  • Summary of Teachers' Affect
• Beyond Belief and Affect?
  • Teachers' Orientations
  • Teachers' Perspectives
  • Communities of Practice and Teacher Identity
    • Summary
• Some Themes and Final Thoughts
  • Changing Beliefs, Infusing Affect
  • Constructs, Measurement, and to the Future

Notes

Beliefs might be thought of as lenses through which one looks when interpreting the world, and affect might be thought of as a disposition or tendency one takes toward some aspect of his or her world; as such, the beliefs and affect one holds surely affect the way one interacts with his or her world. (pp. 257-258)

Philipp summarizes Thompson's 1992 handbook chapter.

"A belief that is about beliefs, but a belief in is about values" (p. 265).

As a researcher, I have found the following stance useful when I attempt to understand how a person holds a particular conception: A conception is a belief for an individual if he or she could respect a position that is in disagreement with the conception as reasonable and intelligent, and it is knowledge for that individual if he or she could not respect a disagreeing position with the conception as reasonable or intelligent. (p. 267)

Philipp summarizes several studies:

Raymond (1997): A study of 6 elementary teachers and the agreement (and disagreement) between stated beliefs and practice. Teachers' practices are more likely to align with their beliefs about math than their beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning.

Hoyles (1992): Rethinking a study from the 1980s and realizing it made more sense through a situated cognition lens

Skott (2001): Study that followed Danish student teachers into their careers, and analyzed how practice did or did not reflect beliefs depending on the immediate context. Often the responsibility of running a classroom and seeing some measure of success for students outweighs a teacher's beliefs about math and math teaching and learning. Unlike Hoyles, Skott thinks this has more to do with changing the goals for an activity than the situated lens through which the activity is viewed.

Sztajn (2003): A study of two different teachers in different schools with the same professed beliefs, but different practices based upon the different socioeconomic status of their students

Remillard & Bryans (2004):

Remillard and Bryans found that Reston's 'general mistrust of published materials trumped any potential compatibility between her beliefs about mathematics and those represented in the book' (p. 366). That is, her orientation toward curriculum, not her beliefs about mathematics, teaching and learning, explained her skeptical approach to the curriculum and led her to use the curriculum only as a collection of useful activities. (p. 289)

Also

APA

Philipp, R. A. (2007). Mathematics teachers' beliefs and affect. In F. K. Lester (Ed.), Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 257–315). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.

BibTeX

@incollection{Philipp2007,
address = {Charlotte, NC},
author = {Philipp, Randolph A.},
booktitle = {Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning},
chapter = {7},
editor = {Lester, Frank K.},
pages = {257--315},
publisher = {Information Age},
title = {{Mathematics teachers' beliefs and affect}},
year = {2007}
}