External conceptual resources as cross-context frameworks, tools, and concepts in teacher learning ecologies¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The article defines external conceptual resources as "frameworks, tools, and concepts that transcend different teacher learning environments, which are external to the local school context and echo voices external to the local team." Examples include teaching practices from workshops, curricula from previous schools, and strategies from conferences. Attending to these resources offers a method to study teacher conversations as embedded in broader learning ecologies rather than only the immediate setting.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Analysis must trace references in conversation back to settings outside the local team and school

Constraints¶

• Current research on teacher collaborative discourse rarely attends to broader contexts, focusing primarily on the immediate setting or intervention, per Lefstein et al. (2019) as cited by the authors

Target Learners¶

• secondary mathematics teachers in school-based teams

Target Learning Objectives¶

• collaborative sensemaking about instruction across learning contexts

Claims¶

• External conceptual resources support teachers' pedagogical judgment by affording richer representations and more productive problem frames [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Pedagogical judgment as three interrelated components: action, reasoning, and responsibility

Examples¶

• Design professional development, curricular tools, and analytic frameworks to support productive recruitment of external conceptual resources

Key Sources¶

• Ehrenfeld, N., McGugan, K. S., Marshall, S. A., & Garner, B. (2020). Reconciling local contexts and external conceptual resources in mathematics teachers' collaborative sensemaking. In Mathematics Education Across Cultures: Proceedings of the 42nd Meeting of the North American Chapter of PME-NA. doi:10.51272/pmena.42.2020-295