Mathematics teachers’ awareness of effective teaching practices: A comparative study

Abstract

This study aimed to explore mathematics teachers’ awareness of effective teaching practices issued by the United States National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 2014a) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Republic of Egypt and to compare the results using the comparative descriptive method. The Saudi sample comprised 651 teachers, and the Egyptian sample included 620 teachers. Data were collected through an awareness scale of eight dimensions of effective teaching practices. The study found that mathematics teachers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Republic of Egypt had high awareness of effective teaching practices. In addition, no differences were found in Saudi teachers’ awareness of potentially differentiating variables. However, there were differences attributable to the gender variable in favor of the female group. For Egyptian teachers, the results showed no statistically significant differences in awareness levels concerning gender and school stage. However, those with higher qualifications (master’s and doctoral degrees) showed significantly higher awareness than those with an average teaching experience of five-nine years. We identified areas to support high-quality mathematics teaching and learning for future professional development by highlighting and examining mathematics teachers’ awareness of effective practices. These findings have important implications for mathematics instruction specialists, coaches, and stakeholders in both countries.