Main elements, towards new developments

Different means can be mobilized for analyzing the resource system of a teacher, at different moments of the history of her resource system. Such an analysis can combine also different case studies, and a general effort of drawing a map of all the resources available for teaching purpose: the explicitation, by a teacher, of her resource system constitutes a relevant information for drawing such a map, and the current version of this map may help the teacher to remember various "ingredients" of her teaching.

In the case of Vera, we got two sets of data.

The more recent one was collected in 2013. It consists of:

• a guided visit (by the teacher) of her resources (see the video episodes 16 to 20 of the preparation session);
• a cutting of her resource system, that is the follow-up of her documentation work for particular objective, see what we have named Vera's local resources.

The previous one was collected in 2012. It consists of:

• an interview (transcription - in French - is available here);
• a paper (Gueudet et al. 2013) analyzing this interview, and the interactions occuring with Vera in 2012. From this paper, we have extracted the two information below.

1) The Vera's drawing of the schematic representation of her resource system (SRRS, cf. methodology)

Original drawing:

Translated and re-drawn by us:

2) A part of the analysis of the interview

"In her schematic representation and in her interview, Vera gave a “geographical” description of her resource system, as organized in two parts, linked via her USB key:

• one part was located at her school (right side of Figure 1). Two places were identified as important: a cupboard, located in her classroom, and the computer for mathematics teachers, located in the common teachers' room. In the cupboard, one shelf was dedicated to each class (6°3, 5°3 etc. on Figure 1 – original representation - are the labels of her classes). She kept various kinds of resources on these shelves: the worksheets she prepared for her students; administrative papers; mathematical tools like compasses and rulers etc. In the mathematics teachers' computer, Vera had two main folders: a personal one, and a second one shared with other mathematics colleagues;
• the other part was located in her home (left side of Figure 1). At home she also had a cupboard and a computer. Moreover, in her room she kept scientific journals (subscribed for her son), and she used them for her students. The computer was identified (by Vera) as a “crucial resource”. It included all digital versions of her course preparations, organised in folders, one for each class. The other resource identified as crucial was her paper folders (which were in the cupboard). In these folders, she kept copies of exercises or activities found in textbooks or in journals she found interesting.

In the interview, she also cited many resources not explicitly represented on Figure 1: personal resources, as books or courses from her previous vocational school and a lot of websites, but also resources shared by all the mathematics teachers of the college. Among these resources, textbooks played an important role. Vera mostly worked with two books: Hélice (Chesné, Coulange, Grapin, & Le Yaouanq, 2009), chosen five years ago by the teachers because it proposed an original way for teaching (Pepin, Gueudet & Trouche 2013); and the Sesamath book, chosen one year ago for students because of its digital format and facilities of use with an interactive white board. This choice had been collectively made by Vera and two of her colleagues. Moreover, the “memory notebooks” (see image below)also seemed to play an important role amongst Vera’ resources: one for each student- these notebooks followed pupils throughout their lower secondary schooling, from from grades 6 to 9, and included all the important mathematics assessments/ results. They clearly constituted a way of communication (about each student) for successive mathematics teachers." (Gueudet et al. 2013).

References

Gueudet, G., Pepin, B., & Trouche, L. (2013), Collective work with resources: an essential dimension for teacher documentation, ZDM, The International Journal on Mathematics Education, 45(7), 1003-1016 , DOI 10.1007/s11858-013-0527-1

Pepin, B., Gueudet, G., & Trouche, L. (2013), Investigating textbooks as crucial interfaces between culture, policy and teacher curricular practice: two contrasted case studies in France and Norway, ZDM, The International Journal on Mathematics Education, 45(5), 685-698 , DOI 10.1007/s11858-013-0526-2

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