Inculcating values in mathematics teaching among secondary school mathematics teachers
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Date
2007
Authors
Dollah, Mohd Uzi
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Abstract
This qualitative research explored values in mathematics teaching as
espoused by three secondary school mathematics teachers in Malaysia. There
are three main categories of values, namely general education values,
mathematical values and mathematics education values. This study seeks to
answer three research questions: what are the values inculcated in
mathematics teaching?; are these values planned before mathematics
teaching?; and are there any conflict between what is planned and what is
inculcated? The Form Four mathematics teachers from two secondary schools
in Kuala Kubu Bharu District participated in the study. Data were collected
mainly through classroom observations, individual interviews, field notes and
documents. All teaching sessions were video-taped while the interviews were
audio-taped for analysis. Each participant was observed three times.
Interviews were carried out before and after each observation. The final
interviewed were conducted for each participant before the field work end.
The finding of the study indicated that all participants did not consider the
inculcation of values to be done explicitly. All participants expressed some
incorporated values in their teaching only after being prompted during the pre
or post interviews by the researcher. Values were inculcated in teaching either
implicitly or explicitly. All participants were conscious of general educational
values, especially the values related to self development such as gratitude,
respect and confidence. All participants did not realize about inculcating
mathematical values in teaching, although there were two values, namely
objectisme and openness, implicitly inculcated in teaching. There were
mathematics education values implicitly inculcated without being aware by
participants. The values were formalistic, instrumental, relevant, theoretical,
accessibility and evaluation values. Three general education values inculcated
explicitly in teaching were truthfulness, appreciation and respects. Although
these participants intended to incorporate some values in their teaching, there
were conflicts that hindered them from doing it sometimes. Three conflicts
were identified. The first conflict in inculcating openness value was whether to
be completely implemented or not. The second conflict was in choosing the
right strategy for inculcating accessibility value. The third conflict was the
preference in inculcating whether activist or formalistic values.
Description
PhD
Keywords
Education , Inculcating values , mathematics teaching , mathematics teachers