A COMPARISON OF TEACHERS' BELIEFS AND PRACTICES IN MATHEMATICS TEACHING AT LOWER SECONDARY AND UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

The focus of this paper is a comparison of lower and upper secondary teachers' beliefs regarding teaching mathematics in general. This is linked to a research project concerning the transition from lower secondary to upper secondary school and the learning and teaching of functions. In Norway the transition from the 10th to the 11th grade always involves these separate institutions. The results presented here are based upon interviews with teachers at both lower and upper secondary level of schooling and some interesting differences in their views of mathematics teaching are uncovered. Hopefully, these preliminary findings could give rise to meaningful discussions related to how a qualitative approach to the transition issue might be carried out.