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Preservice Teachers' Analysis of Children's Work to Make Instructional Decisions
Author(s) -
Cooper Sandi
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
school science and mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1949-8594
pISSN - 0036-6803
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-8594.2009.tb18105.x
Subject(s) - construct (python library) , mathematics education , process (computing) , teacher education , psychology , work (physics) , teaching method , pedagogy , computer science , mechanical engineering , engineering , operating system , programming language
Teaching is an interactive process in which teachers gather information, analyze the results, and construct a response based on this diagnosis (Cooney, 1988). Considering alternatives in constructing a response, that is, making an instructional decision, is of great importance in teaching. How might mathematics teacher educators provide experiences for preservice teachers to begin the development of this skill? In an attempt to determine how these experiences might reveal the level of understanding preservice teachers have in regards to children's mathematical thinking, a study was conducted over three semesters. During the mathematics methods course, preservice teachers were involved in analyzing children's work through the review and discussion of several samples. They were required to determine the error pattern, discuss what might have lead to this misconception, and suggest appropriate instructional strategies that might help this student. Although most preservice teachers could correctly identify the computational error patterns, they had difficulty in determining what might have led to the misconceptions and proposing effective instructional strategies.