Scheming and Re-scheming: Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Use and Re-use of Resources

• Published in: Digital Experiences in Mathematics Education Vol. 7; no. 3; pp. 427 - 452
• Main Authors: Kayali, Lina, Biza, Irene
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Change; Education; Educational Technology; Instructional Materials; Learning and Instruction; Mathematical analysis; Mathematics Education; Mathematics Teachers; Schemata (Cognition); Secondary School Teachers; Teachers; Schemes; Volume of revolution; Integration; Resources; Documentational approach to didactics
• ISSN: 2199-3246; 2199-3254
• DOI: 10.1007/s40751-021-00091-x

In this article, we examine secondary mathematics teachers’ work with resources using the Documentational Approach to Didactics lens. Specifically, we look at the resources and a teacher’s scheme of use (aims, rules of actions, operational invariants, and inferences) of these resources across a set of lessons (macro-level analysis) that aim towards students’ preparation for the examinations and how this use emerges in a set of three lessons on the same topic (micro-level analysis) as a response to contingent moments. We propose the terms scheming—a teacher’s emerging scheme of use related to the same set of resources used for the same aim—and re-scheming, namely, shifts in such scheming. Our analysis of lesson observations and the teacher’s reflections on his actions from a post-observation interview demonstrate the interplay between the stable characteristics of the scheme of use and the scheming and re-scheming in individual lessons. We conclude this article with a discussion on the methodological potential of using both macro- and micro-level analyses in the investigation of teachers’ use of resources.