A Study of Teachers’ Beliefs and Behaviors Regarding 1st-Grade Math Teaching under the Reformed Curriculum

Author: Su-Hui Su(Yian-Pu Primary School of Pingtung County),Hsun-Grow Chan　(National Pingtung Teachers College)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 50, No. 1
Date：April 2005
Pages：27-51
DOI：10.3966/2073753X2005045001002

Abstract：

In 2001, Taiwan began the reform of its “9-year Integrated Curriculum,” starting with the 1st and 7th grades in the first year. This study focused on 1st-grade math teachers after the first year of reform. Its purpose was to investigate these teachers’ beliefs regarding math teaching, analyzed in terms of several variables, in public elementary schools in Kaohsiung and Pingtung. A stratified random sampling of 665 1st-grade math teachers answered a questionnaire concerning their “instructional situation.” The conclusions were as follows:
1.Most 1st-grade math teachers’ beliefs regarding teaching mathematics tend to be progressive.
2.Elementary school teachers’ behavior regarding the teaching of their subject has improved. There are significant relationships between the different variables. Female teachers, teachers with 11-15 years of teaching experience, teachers with more than 21 years of experience, teachers who once taught the 1985 new mathematics curriculum, and teachers who have attended seminars on teaching mathematics for 25 to 40 hours tend to be progressive.
3.There is a significant positive correlation between teachers’beliefs and teachers’behaviors, but they are not identical in their effect on“progressive tendency.”
4.Insufficient teaching time, family problems, disturbances from after-school classes, and the wide divergence in student levels were the major obstacles to teaching mathematics effectively during the first year of implementation of the 9-year integrated curriculum.
Based on the results of this study, we offer suggestions to the schools, administrators and teachers for the implementation of next reform of math curriculum in 2005.

Keywords：9-year integrated curriculum, teachers’beliefs, teachers’behavior

《Full Text》