Noticing in Pre-service Teacher Education: Research Lessons as a Context for Reflection on Learners’ Mathematical Reasoning and Sense-Making

Abstract

Professional noticing of learners’ mathematics reasoning is a crucial ingredient of a mathematics teacher’s set of teaching competencies. Research lessons in the lesson study process, with its focus on learner reasoning, provide a structured environment for the building of mathematical knowledge as well as for reflection and the development of teacher professional noticing and sense-making. This paper reports on the depth and growth in noticing of three pre-service teachers during research lessons in their third and fourth years, using the Van Es noticing framework. The study showed that two of these teachers’ noticing shifted to higher levels over the two years, with greater focus on learners’ mathematical reasoning and sense-making than on teacher actions and teaching. Prospective teachers need well-structured and focused opportunities, individually as well as in groups, to learn to notice and make sense of learner thinking and reasoning.