Digital Resources in Mathematics: Teachers’ Conceptions and Noticing

Mathematics education researchers have explored ways in which teachers construct or supplement their mathematics curriculum (Darling-Hammond, 2006; Remillard, 1999; M. G. Sherin & Drake, 2009). As teachers construct or supplement their mathematics curricula they must find, choose, and decide how to use instructional resources. One available strategy is searching online (Ruthven, 2013) to find digital resources and digital tools. Access to digital tools and resources can be a powerful tool for K-12 teachers. In order to use digital tools and resources effectively, teachers must make decisions in choosing which to use and how to use them as they supplement or construct their curriculum. Decisions depend on the general, pedagogical, and mathematical features that teachers notice. In order to make sense of the features teachers notice and how to support teachers’ professional development of their abilities to find, choose, and decide how to use digital tools and resources, this poster presentation presents preliminary frameworks and qualitative analysis results.

Brown (2009) discussed the differences in teachers’ skills in “perceiving the affordance of the materials and making decisions about how to use them to craft instructional episodes that achieve her goals” (p. 29). Dietiker, Males, Amador, Earnest, and Stohlmann (2014) defined curricular noticing as “how teachers make sense of the complexity of content and pedagogical opportunities of written curriculum materials” (p. 4), which included attention to analyzing the materials for mathematical content and practices as well as pedagogical practices. To sum up, this type of noticing focuses on what aspects teachers think are important and what aspects teachers perceive in instructional resources.

In this poster presentation, I narrow the focus of these previous ideas on teachers’ noticing of features of digital tools and resources designed for use in mathematics teaching and learning. That is, I explore the characteristics of digital tools and resources that teachers decide are important, whether the characteristics are general, pedagogical, or mathematical in nature. I also look to whether the characteristics are superficial or profound in nature.