Educational research and professional learning in changing times. The MARBLE experience (Q2843221)

It is one of the aims of this book to distribute research experience and results in `changing times'. For several years, the authors conducted a longitudinal Australian study on professional learning for mathematics teachers and its impacts on students' attitudes and mathematical competence. Their book documents a wide range of experience in this field -- especially against the backdrop of changing factors that often influence field research like this: teacher turnover, curriculum reforms etc. Not trying to ignore influencing factors like these but instead trying to document the experiences, impacts and reflexions on both educational research and professional development, the authors describe three different foci of the MARBLE project (= ``providing the mathematical foundation for an innovative Australia within reform-based learning environments''). First, they describe an analysis of change for teachers and students within the context of the study. Second, they report on each case study in detail. Topics of the studies are for example a problem solving program, teaching algebra meaningfully or teaching negative numbers. Finally, they present examples of topic based professional learning. This section faces the challenge to contribute the research not only to education academics but also to teachers in form of practical ideas for teachers of grades 5--8. In this sense, this book is recommended not only to researchers working in the field of professional learning and educational research but also to interested teachers.