Examining the Impact of a Videocase-based Mathematics Methods Course on Secondary Preservice Teachers’ Skills at Analyzing Students’ Strategies

Abstract

This paper focuses on results from a study conducted with two cohorts of preservice teachers (PSTs) in a videocase-based mathematics methods course at a large midwestern university in the US. The motivation for this study was to look beyond whether or not PSTs pay attention to mathematical thinking of students, as shown by previous studies when engaging with video, and, in turn, characterize at a more specific level areas in which PSTs’ responses change. Our findings show that regarding PSTs anticipation of strategies, both cohorts showed a significant increase in the overall number of strategies PSTs were able to anticipate, and a significant increase in the mathematical depth of the anticipated strategies. However, there was no change in terms of PSTs identification and description of high school students’ strategies as displayed in video given that both cohorts of PSTs performed equally proficient at both pre- and post- tests.