CHAPTER 45: Noticing as a form of Professional Development in Teaching Mathematics

As a teacher, I constantly change my practice. I make changes not to correct something but to respond to students and to answer my own questions about teaching mathematics. These changes are a form of professional development because they are often derived from readings or working with other teachers. This article focuses on how John Mason’s book Researching Your Own Practice: The Discipline of Noticing (2002) can enrich professional development. In particular, I will look at accounts-of and accounts for experience, professional development, and connections to mathematics.

Mason’s (2002) work centers on developing sensitivities for attending to, or noticing, aspects of unexamined and habitual practice, so that choices in moments of teaching practice might be better informed. Mason’s research has shown the importance of reflection in developing professional practice by offering a “detailed, structured, systematic” (p. 25) way to record and act on reflections.