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The purpose of this paper is to propose and evaluate a proactive reflective activity for mathematics student teachers in which they consider mathematical content and its teaching in highly specific classroom situations.

The study was conducted in context of a mathematics Initial Teacher Education programme in the UK. Participants were invited from the whole cohort of student teachers to identify, script and reflect upon critical classroom incidents. In total, 12 such scripts were produced and then discussed by 17 student teachers in group and plenary sessions. Discussions were audio-recorded. Scripts and discussions were analysed according to four characteristics: consistency between stated pedagogical priorities and intended practices; specificity of the reflection to the classroom situation reported in the scripts; reification of pedagogical discourse; and, reification of mathematical discourse.

In the results, the authors exemplify student teachers’ insights that emerged from the analysis of the scripts through the typology of the four characteristics, and the authors observe that the student teachers’ insights mirror the complexity and richness of the mathematics classrooms they face. The authors’ examples and their evaluation through the aforementioned typology of the four characteristics illustrate the potency of student teachers’ participation in producing, and reflecting upon, individually and collectively, critical incidents of their inaugural experiences in the classroom.

As these activities take placein the context of teacher education, professional development or developmental research environments, an additional challenge is to generate robust and informative evaluation of teachers’ engagement with reflection and research on their practice. This study takes on this challenge in the context of a mathematics teacher education programme in the UK: the authors propose and evaluate a proactive reflective activity for mathematics student teachers in which they consider mathematical content and its teaching in highly specific classroom situations.

The examples and their evaluation through the typology of four characteristics illustrate the potency of student teachers’ participation in producing, and reflecting upon, individually and collectively, critical incidents of their inaugural experiences in the classroom.

To share activities to support preservice secondary mathematics teachers’ (PSMTs) participation questioning discourse, which consists of (a) modeling and engaging students in mathematical discourse and activity, and (b) supporting and assessing students’ development of conceptual understanding.

PSMTs typically struggle to develop fluency in participation questioning discourse, despite having it modeled for them by expert teachers in mathematics education courses. Using Gee’s Discourse Theory to conceptualize this problem, we developed the iterative model of See it, Try it and Reflect on it (STaR) to create learning activities in a methods course that engage PSMTs in viewing and reflecting on videotaped mathematics lessons.

PSMTs increased their fluency in participation questioning discourse through viewing and reflecting on videotaped lessons using the STaR iterative model.

The STaR model is a promising framework that can be used to design learning activities to help preservice and inservice teachers acquire fluency in discipline-specific pedagogical Discourses.

What do economists talk about? This seemingly innocent interrogation conceals a broader and innovative research programme, with the potential to renew the reflection on heterodox economics in a post‐crisis scenario. The aim of this paper is to show that convergence between language for specific purposes and economics is possible, so as to single out the genesis and the emergence of critical economic discourse.

After underlining the necessary collaboration between language and subject‐matter specialists, the paper addresses the question of the problematic use of economics textbooks in English‐speaking countries. Then, it deals with the fascinating question of the multiplicity of specialized meanings in economics. After pointing out the shortcomings of orthodoxy characterized by hyper‐formalization and its inevitable corollary, the mathematical nature of the discipline, it investigates the genesis of critical economic discourse, which requires the acknowledgement of pluralism and the components of heterodoxy, in order to converge towards a process of disciplinary acculturation that goes hand in hand with the learning process of language for specific purposes.

A deep‐seated renewal of economics, consisting of a methodological shift towards the components of heterodoxy, has the potential to enhance the effectiveness of teaching English for economics, so that the latter effectively conveys specialized meaning.

Teaching and researching English for specific purposes necessitates enhanced collaboration between subject‐matter specialists and applied linguists. However, this type of collaboration can be hampered by institutional or socio‐professional obstacles.

Discursive analysis has become indispensable in order to surmount the collective failure of mainstream economics in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. With the help of textbooks of a new kind, one must go beyond the vision of students as mere consumers of knowledge.

Language for specific purposes has long shown interest in economics, but is the reciprocal true? This paper proposes an original association, by putting the two disciplinary fields on an equal footing, and by bringing new synergies forward.

Teacher education and professional development have long been criticized for failing to induct and engage teachers in discourses of classroom deliberation. Lesson studies have contributed to an emerging discourse in which teachers come together to study classroom teaching to improve student learning. The purpose of this paper is to share knowledge about developing video resources to support this emerging discourse.

The authors showcase a digital hypermedia video case developed from research lessons on a third‐grade topic on division with remainder, conducted by teachers and researchers in a lesson study cycle in Singapore. Drawing on anchored instruction and knowledge points of the mathematics education discourse in China, the authors used embedded contexts, case‐based reasoning, critical incidents and facilitation as major design features.

A video documentary traces the research problem and how teachers learned to use the concrete‐pictorial‐abstract (CPA) model to improve teaching for student learning. Critical incidences are created to engage teachers in analyzing the research lessons by describing, interpreting and probing into the object of learning, student difficulties in learning, and how the teacher mediated the subject matter of teaching. A full range of lesson study data and related reading and web resources are provided in the video case to support training and self study.

The paper demonstrates the promise to capitalize on the curricular and pedagogical values of the rich video archives of lesson studies to support continued inquiry of teachers. It has important implications for addressing the issues of depth of implementation and sustainability arising from rapid spread of lesson studies in countries like Singapore.

This study aims to highlight the perspectives of one black male middle-school mathematics teacher, Chris Andrews, about developing black students’ positive mathematics identities during his first year of teaching middle-school mathematics in a predominately black school. The author’s and Chris Andrews’ shared experiences as black Americans opened the door to candid conversations regarding the racialized mathematical experiences of “our” children, as he referred to them during the interviews.

The author used case study methodology (Yin, 2009) to illuminate Chris’s salient academic and personal experiences, approaches to teaching mathematics and ways that he attended to mathematics identity in practice. The author used sociopolitical and intersectional theoretical framings to interpret the data.

Chris’s perspective on teaching mathematics and developing mathematics identity aligned with taking a sociopolitical stance for teaching and learning mathematics. He understood how oppression influenced his black students’ opportunities to learn. Chris believed teaching mathematics to black children was his moral and communal responsibility. However, Chris’s case is one of tensions, as he often espoused deficit perspectives about his students’ lack of motivation and mathematical achievement. Chris’s case illustrates that even when black teachers and black students share cultural referents; black teachers are not immune to the pervasive deficit-oriented theories regarding black students’ mathematics achievement.

The findings of this work warrant the need to take intersectional approaches to understanding the ways of knowing that black male teachers bring to their practice, as Chris’s identity as a black person was an interplay between his black identity and other salient identities related to ability and social class.

Chris, even while navigating deficit-oriented perceptions of his students, provides an example of bringing a sociopolitical consciousness to teaching mathematics and to support novice black male teachers in their content, pedagogical, and dispositional development.

This work adds to the limited body of literature that highlights the experiences of black teachers in a subject-specific context, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subject areas that have historically marginalized the participation of black people.

When designing learning environments in primary teacher education, there is an attempt to represent real teaching practice in an authentic way to prospective teachers. When constructing these environments, teacher educators have to consider how to best motivate the student teacher, identifying the most relevant practice-based principles and the ways in which the theory and practice can be bridged. There are other considerations as well. For example, in the Netherlands, as in some other countries, teacher education is changing drastically. Controversial teacher education curricula, consisting of primary school subjects originated after more than one hundred years of reflection on the subject matter of primary education and the ways teachers have taught, have been replaced by curricula merely intended to improve the general professionalization of the prospective teacher, neglecting the school subjects. More specifically, the new objective is to adequately prepare students to become competent beginning teachers.

More than ever before, globalization has linked the socioeconomic development of nations to the performance of their educational systems. One of the consequences of this new focus on improving the quality of teachers is the acknowledgment of the importance of engaging more directly with what is at the center of action, that is, pedagogy (Alexander, 2008). In this perspective, we conduct research aimed at describing, analyzing, and establishing a critical portrait of the scientific bases of the pedagogical choices made by three major international organizations (OECD, UNESCO, and World Bank) with respect to teacher education and development. In terms of methodology, we conducted a fine-grained analysis of the documents produced in the framework of TALIS and semi-structured individuals interviews with five staff members of OECD. The idea of pedagogical pluralism constitutes a rhetorical artefact through which constructivist teaching approaches are favored.

For more than a decade there have been calls to change professional development and teacher education. A central task and challenge for teacher educators is to design learning experiences that offer the greatest potential for improving teacher practice. Recently, videos of classrooms have emerged as tools for teacher learning. This chapter will consider the issues we faced attempting to create a coherent, sequenced professional development curriculum using video to help teachers improve mathematics teaching and learning. We will share some of the principles that guided the work, what we’ve been learning and indicate where we feel more research is needed.

The purpose of this paper is to report a case study of how learning study was incorporated in teacher education programs in Hong Kong. It aims to share the success of the program and to disseminate how pre‐service teachers enhanced their mathematical content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge by practising learning study. Building on the work, this paper suggests incorporating the framework of learning study, a theory‐guided pedagogical principle, as an integrated subject of mathematics pedagogy and teaching practice in teacher education programs.

In total 32 pre‐service teachers’ learning journals of their reflections of learning processes were analyzed. The analysis of data and reporting of findings are linked tightly to how pre‐service teachers enhanced their mathematical content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge by practising learning study.

The 32 pre‐service teachers noted that the learning study subject fostered their understanding of relationship between theory and practice and their understanding of transforming knowledge into action. In particular, they came to understand that knowledge of pupils and content involves a particular mathematical idea or procedure and familiarity with students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions. They also reported that they understood better what mathematics pedagogy content knowledge means and what components it includes.

The suggestions of incorporating the framework of learning study in teacher education programs is supported and manifested by the positive feedback and comments of the 32 pre‐service teachers who underwent the entire learning process of learning study in Hong Kong. The findings demonstrate how pre‐service teachers’ mathematical content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge were enhanced by practising learning study.

The purpose of this paper is to pull together articles published in the journal over the last five years in terms of their relevance to the main themes and issues that have shaped its development.

The idea is that the paper enables teachers and researchers in schools and higher education institutions to access a substantial and unique collection of lesson and learning studies, and articles about the theoretical and methodological issues they raise, in the context of a rapidly globalising phenomenon.

The paper sets a framework for evaluating the growth and development of lesson studies as a form of practice-based teacher research.

This paper, authored by the founding chief editor of the IJLLS, establishes conceptual links between the theory and practice of lesson study and the wider field of practice-based pedagogical research.