Facilitating video-based discussions to support prospective teacher noticing

Abstract

Research points to the importance of attending to and understanding children's mathematical thinking as an important aspect of what teachers need to know. Teachers determine where children need to go next instructionally, in part, by interpreting children's thinking, often drawing on different sources of information as evidence of children's current level of understanding. Yet, much of the extant research on preservice teacher noticing, in particular, has studied attending to and interpreting as components of noticing, without attention to prospective teachers’ use of evidence to support their noticing of children's thinking. In this study, we examine the facilitation moves that seemed to support prospective teachers in providing evidence of their noticing of children's mathematical thinking. We conclude with the implications of our work for facilitating video-based discussions of children's mathematical thinking with prospective teachers.