Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs and their Practices towards Collaborative Learning in Public and Private Schools: A Comparative Case Study

Abstract

A multiple case study was designed to find the consistency of mathematics teachers’ beliefs towards collaborative learning with their practices. Moreover, it explored the similarities\differences of public and private school teachers’ practices who highly believe in collaborative learning. Careful analysis of the transcribed classroom observations into four categories; classroom tasks, classroom discourse, classroom environment and types of evaluation, revealed that the collaborative pedagogical beliefs and practices of both teachers are not consistent. However, the public-school teacher used collaborative layout in some of her classes but could not implement the social pedagogy in true spirit. On the other hand, the private school teacher did not implement the collaborative learning in her classroom.