Learnings and Reflections by (Future) Teachers on Anticipation in Exploratory Mathematics Teaching

Abstract

Background: Given its nature guided by inquiry, collaboration, communication and reflection, Exploratory Mathematics Teaching (EMT) practices are considered challenging to the teacher, particularly due to the characteristics and role given to the action of anticipating. Objectives: Investigating learnings arising from teachers' reflections based on the anticipation of EMT practices. Design: It is a qualitative study, of interpretive nature, about collective reflections of Mathematics teachers who developed EMT practices raised in a focus group. Setting and Participants: Five teacher participated in the study after accepting a voluntary invitation, sent by email, for a focus group conducted remotely through the Google Meet platform. When conducting EMT practices, two of them were already working on Basic Education and three others performed them in actions of supervised internship, research projects, or extension ones during their undergraduate course, which justifies referring to them as future teachers in this study. Data collection and analysis: The data were produced from a focus group, guided by a script that focused on teachers' reflections about EMT practices, whose video recording was transcribed; and, in this study, the aspects related to the action of anticipating were focused. The analyses problematize, in an interpretative way, actions, reflections, dilemmas, possibilities of referrals and considerations about the EMT, in reference to a framework that guides practices of this nature. Results: The results point out some demanding actions for the teacher anticipating and learnings raised by reflection on these aspects highlight changes in understanding planning and the mathematical task, as well as about the roles played by the students and teachers. Conclusions: While the study highlights the potential investigations located in practices to emphasize specific ways of appropriating demanding teaching perspectives - such as Exploratory Teaching - it highlights the effectiveness of said practices and reflects on them as potentially enrichening for professional learning and for expanding theoretical frameworks for guidance.