The September issue (Volume 75, Number 1) of Educational Studies in Mathematics has been published. This issue contains 6 interesting articles:

• Teachers’ concerns and efficacy beliefs about implementing a mathematics curriculum reform: integrating two lines of inquiry, by Charalambos Y. Charalambous and George N. Philippou
• Lexical bundle analysis in mathematics classroom discourse: the significance of stance, by Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, David Wagner and Viviana Cortes
• Appraising lexical bundles in mathematics classroom discourse: obligation and choice, by Beth Herbel-Eisenmann and David Wagner
• Partially correct constructs illuminate students’ inconsistent answers, by Gila Ron, Tommy Dreyfus and Rina Hershkowitz
• The relation between types of assessment tasks and the mathematical reasoning students use, by Jesper Boesen, Johan Lithner and Torulf Palm
• The role of intuition in the solving of optimization problems, by Uldarico Malaspina and Vicenç Font

Being interested in affective issues, and beliefs in particular, I found the article by Charalambous and Philippou very interesting. They make a very interesting point by discussing the relationship between teachers’ concerns and efficacy beliefs. Although their study was made in a Cypriot context, their discussions and arguments are of general interest. Here is the abstract of their article:

This study brings together two lines of research on teachers’ affective responses toward mathematics curriculum reforms: their concerns and their efficacy beliefs. Using structural equation modeling to analyze data on 151 elementary mathematics teachers’ concerns and efficacy beliefs 5 years into a mandated curriculum reform on problem solving, the study provides empirical support to a model integrating teachers’ concerns and efficacy beliefs. This model suggests that teachers’ concerns of preceding stages inform their concerns of succeeding stages; that teachers’ efficacy beliefs about using the reform affect their task and impact concerns and are, in turn, informed by their self concerns; and that efficacy beliefs about employing pre-reform instructional approaches influence all types of teacher concerns. A qualitative analysis of data from 53 teacher logs provided additional insights into teachers’ concerns about the reform. We discuss the policy and methodological implications of these findings and offer directions for future studies.