Math Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, and Belief Change in Implementing Problem Based Learning in Qatari Primary Governmental School

Ruba Samih Al Said; Xiangyun Du; Hadeel Abdelkarim H M ALKhatib; Michael Henry Romanowski; Areej Isam Ibrahim Barham

doi:10.29333/ejmste/105849

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Ruba Samih Al Said ¹, Xiangyun Du ¹ ^* , Hadeel Abdelkarim H M ALKhatib ¹, Michael Henry Romanowski ¹, Areej Isam Ibrahim Barham ¹

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¹ College of Education, Qatar University, QATAR^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study explored math teachers’ beliefs regarding their roles, practices and perceived change in implementing Problem-Based Learning in Qatar’s primary government schools. Multiple sources of qualitative data were generated including metaphors, lesson plans and interviews with seventeen math teachers. Although teachers considered PBL as an effective method benefiting student learning and they demonstrated progress in changing their beliefs moving from subject to didactic dimension through PBL implementation, their practices remained partially aligned with their perceived belief changes. This discrepancy could be attributed to several encountered challenges, including teachers’ insecurity and lack of confidence, difficulty in facilitating student collaboration, structural constraints, additional workload, and the lack of school and peer support. Results suggest the need for different types of “problems” and approaches such as more direct instruction, and higher feasibility in teachers’ autonomy when implementing PBL in primary education.

Keywords

teachers’ belief about their roles
teachers’ belief change
math classrooms
Problem-Based Learning (PBL)
Qatari primary governmental schools
metaphors

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2019, Volume 15, Issue 5, Article No: em1710

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/105849

Publication date: 20 Mar 2019

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How to cite this article

APA

Al Said, R. S., Du, X., ALKhatib, H. A. H. M., Romanowski, M. H., & Barham, A. I. I. (2019). Math Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, and Belief Change in Implementing Problem Based Learning in Qatari Primary Governmental School. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 15(5), em1710. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/105849

Vancouver

Al Said RS, Du X, ALKhatib HAHM, Romanowski MH, Barham AII. Math Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, and Belief Change in Implementing Problem Based Learning in Qatari Primary Governmental School. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2019;15(5):em1710. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/105849

AMA

Al Said RS, Du X, ALKhatib HAHM, Romanowski MH, Barham AII. Math Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, and Belief Change in Implementing Problem Based Learning in Qatari Primary Governmental School. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2019;15(5), em1710. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/105849

Chicago

Al Said, Ruba Samih, Xiangyun Du, Hadeel Abdelkarim H M ALKhatib, Michael Henry Romanowski, and Areej Isam Ibrahim Barham. "Math Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, and Belief Change in Implementing Problem Based Learning in Qatari Primary Governmental School". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2019 15 no. 5 (2019): em1710. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/105849

Harvard

Al Said, R. S., Du, X., ALKhatib, H. A. H. M., Romanowski, M. H., and Barham, A. I. I. (2019). Math Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, and Belief Change in Implementing Problem Based Learning in Qatari Primary Governmental School. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 15(5), em1710. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/105849

MLA

Al Said, Ruba Samih et al. "Math Teachers’ Beliefs, Practices, and Belief Change in Implementing Problem Based Learning in Qatari Primary Governmental School". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 15, no. 5, 2019, em1710. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/105849