“Books I Used as a Child were Mathematically Incorrect”: Reasons to Use Children’s Shape-Related Books as a Resource to Improve Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching

Abstract

Some goals of mathematics teacher education include ensuring that pre-service teachers (PSTs) have strong content knowledge, the skill to anticipate and interpret student thinking, the ability to plan how to respond, and the ability to critically select resources for instruction. These goals are especially challenging for the topic of geometric shapes. Thus, we share an instructional activity that focuses PSTs' attention on an inaccurate resource of geometric information, children's books, to accomplish these goals in mathematics content as well as methods courses. Analyses of surveys and content assessments conducted to assess efficacy of the Shape Book Critique Activity were interpreted with the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) framework. Based on the findings we suggest that this short 40-minute activity is a promising way to promote PSTs' growth in three aspects of MKT for geometric shapes.