Becoming aware of mathematical gaps in new curricular materials: A resource-based analysis of teaching practice

Abstract

The study featured in this article, with its central focus on resources-in-use, draws upon salient aspects of the documentational approach of didactics. It includes an a priori analysis of the curricular resources being used by a teacher for the first time, followed by detailed in situ observations of the unfolding of her teaching practice involving these resources. The central mathematical problem of the lesson being analyzed deals with families of polynomial functions. The analysis highlights the teacher's growing awareness of the mathematical gaps in the resources she is using, which we conjecture to be a first step for her in the evolutionary transformation of resource to document, as well as an essential constituent of her ongoing professional development. © The Author(s).