Computational thinking (CT) is often regarded as providing a ‘soft start’ for later involvement with artificial intelligence and, hence, as a crucial twenty-first century skill. The introduction of CT in primary mathematics curricula puts many demands on teachers, and their understanding of CT in mathematics is key to its successful introduction. Inspired by an information ecology perspective, we investigate how four primary school teachers understand CT in mathematics and how they go ahead to include CT in their mathematics teaching practice. Through observations and interviews, we find promising starting points for including CT, related to pattern recognition, problem solving and the use of programming activities. Our findings indicate that teachers’ lack of knowledge affects CT adoption in two ways: during its inclusion in the existing mathematics curriculum and as a new element focussed on programming and coding, leaving mathematics in the background. For the inclusion to be fruitful, we suggest there is a need to help teachers understand how CT can be used productively in mathematics and vice versa.

Two major concerns in mathematics teacher education are the role of subject matter knowledge and the development of self-efficacy in pre-service teachers. This article brings these issues together in an exploration of the interaction between pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their subject matter knowledge and their accounts of university and placement experiences as potential sources of self-efficacy. Reporting on a group of ten pre-service teachers in Norway, we explore variations in the ways in which they perceived the role of subject knowledge in relation to experience, particularly “mastery experiences”, over a period of nearly two years. We suggest that recognition of the role of “understanding why” in mathematics is crucial in the experience of mastery, and that there is a need to focus more on the role of subject matter knowledge in all sources of self-efficacy in teaching mathematics.

This article reports on the use of Rasch modelling to develop and validate an instrument measuring self-efficacy in tutoring children in primary mathematics (SETcPM). In response to the literature on teacher efficacy, the 20-item instrument aims to inform teacher educators, and is designed for novice pre-service teachers (nPSTs) preparing to teach mathematics in primary school (grades 1–7, ages 6–13). To ensure that the tasks of teaching are imaginable for nPSTs, the instrument targets the core activity of teaching mathematics: helping a generic child with mathematics tasks. We propose that SETcPM is measurable for the intended population and represents a central part of self-efficacy in teaching mathematics (SETM). Understanding the initial SETcPM of novices and mapping its development over the course of their training programme can contribute to a better understanding of SETM, and allow teacher educators to tailor their support.