Use of mathematical tasks of teaching and the corresponding LMT measures in the Malawi context

Abstract

We discuss the adaptation and piloting of the previously developed U.S.-specific measures of mathematical knowledge for teaching to the Malawi context. The purpose is to produce measures that can be used to evaluate changes in mathematical knowledge for teaching gained through primary teacher education, thus informing teacher educators on the most effective evidence-based practices. By interviewing 14 teachers, we first examine whether the 16 recurrent mathematical tasks of teaching tasks identified in the U.S. are applicable to the Malawi context. This is followed by the discussion of the adaptability of the U.S. developed number concept and operations LMT measures. Next, we report on the item psychometric properties estimated from a pilot study in which 351 preservice primary school teachers participated at the end of their coursework. Our findings suggest that all the 16 tasks of teaching mathematics are applicable to the Malawi context, albeit to varying degrees, and should be complemented by additional tasks suggested by the Malawi teachers. For the LMT measures, we found that the majority of the LMT items psychometrically function well in the Malawi context and that item difficulty estimated in Malawi was strongly correlated with that reported in the U.S. We thus argue that there is some generality to the mathematics teaching tasks across the two contexts, as well as some specificity to Malawi, and that the adapted LMT measures can be used in a Malawi context.