Mathematics Teacher Decision Making: Research directions and theoretical considerations

Despina Potari, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens 

In the seminar, I will address first the different ways that mathematics teacher decision making has been conceptualized in the research literature and the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the research developed in the last decade in this area. Then, I will offer an example of a study when teachers design and enact teaching in the setting of piloting a new national curriculum in Greece. I will discuss decision making under the lenses of Activity Theory illustrating the role of contradictions and the social and historical aspects of it. In particular, teacher decision making is studied through actions, goals and how these are interrelated to the activity of mathematics teaching that is framed from the tools and the resources that a teacher has available as well as from the rules that the communities in which participate bring into the way that attempts to achieve her goals. Finally. I will discuss how we can address emotional issues in the process of the on the moment teacher decision making, using Activity Theory.