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Online mathematics teacher education: overview of an emergent field of research

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Abstract

Online mathematics teacher education is characterized as an emergent area of research in mathematics education. We identify some key topics that require further research: communities and networks of teachers in online environments; sustainability of these communities and kinds of organizational structures; knowledge-building practices in technology-mediated work group interactions; and online interactions among teachers. The emergence of new research issues also gives rise to new theoretical approaches or the adaptation of existing theoretical perspectives that are presented in this special issue. We summarize some of these theoretical perspectives and attempt to show how online environments have changed them, as well as some theoretical problems that remain to be solved.

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Notes

  1. Sustainability should be understood as the lasting continuation of collaboration, in this case in an online context.

  2. Underlying the claims in Toulmin’s arguments are warrants (Toulmin 2003), the inferences or assumptions that are taken for granted by the writer (and sometimes by the argument). Warrants connect the claim and the support.

  3. Professional noticing should be understood as teachers paying attention to student thinking, how they interpret what they notice with respect to students’ mathematical understanding, and how those interpretations influence teachers’ instructional decisions. See Fernández, Llinares and Valls (2013) for more details.

  4. Instrumentalization refers to the process by which artifacts become instruments (instrumental genesis). Gueudet et al. (in this issue) describe some characteristics of this process as teacher educators interact with the resources they use for their online training work.

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Acknowledgments

The contribution of Marcelo C. Borba is supported by CNPq, a research funding agency of the Brazilian Government (Grant 304915/2011-4). The contribution of Salvador Llinares was supported by Grant No. EDU2011-27288, MINECO-Spain. Although they are not responsible for the contents of the paper, we would like to acknowledge the contributions of Ricardo Scucuglia, member of GPIMEM (http://www.rc.unesp.br/gpimem), and Anne W. Kepple in earlier versions of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UNESP, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil

    Marcelo de Carvalho Borba

  2. UA, Alicante, Spain

    Salvador Llinares

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  1. Marcelo de Carvalho Borba
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  2. Salvador Llinares
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Correspondence to Marcelo de Carvalho Borba.

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Borba, M.d.C., Llinares, S. Online mathematics teacher education: overview of an emergent field of research. ZDM Mathematics Education 44, 697–704 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-012-0457-3

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