Preservice Teachers' Use of Manipulatives

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: Preservice Teachers' Curricular Resource Use for Teaching Math and Science

Abstract

This study explores how pre-service teachers’ development is affected by making and reviewing videos of their own instruction. Latour’s Actor Network Theory was used to frame a discussion about how the classroom teaching materials influence pre-service teachers’ practices, students’ behaviors, and the interaction between them. Materials, as nonhuman actants, exert a tremendous influence on pre-service teachers’ lessons. Many of the lessons the pre-service teachers videotaped and reflected on were undermined by difficulties they ran into with the materials they employed in the classroom. The uncertain and unpredictable characteristics of preschool classrooms require the pre-service teacher to develop the ability to make quick decisions, allocating attention to multiple children and tasks, and adjusting quickly to the changing circumstances.

Author

• Bing Xiao, Austin Peay State University