Teacher noticing: enlightening or blinding?

Abstract

This paper comments on the theoretical formulations and usage of the construct of teacher noticing in a selection of the papers in this special issue of ZDM Mathematics Education. The analysis of how the notion of teacher noticing is used in the papers suggests that it draws attention to several interdependencies involved that have not been attended to in the past. However, the contributions in this special issue have only partially accounted for the dynamic interactions in teacher noticing, suggesting that there is potential for enriching our understanding of the complexities involved in the realm of teacher noticing. The purpose of this commentary is to stimulate the current discussion on teacher noticing by providing insights from cognitive science and the applied science of human factors, which have the potential to challenge the current understanding of noticing. In doing so, the paper sets the stage for several related constructs from these research disciplines to raise awareness of aspects that recent conceptualizations of teacher noticing may have blinded rather than enlightened.