Developing Profiles of Middle-Level Mathematics Teacher Candidates' Responsiveness With Avatars: An Approximation of Practice

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Innovative Technology Use in Preservice Teacher Learning

Abstract

This paper discusses the way in which middle-level teacher candidates interact with a technology-based approximation of practice in their methods course. Specifically, the instructor provided teacher candidates an opportunity to practice eliciting and responding to student thinking via the use of an avatar-based simulation. The data for the proposal include four teacher candidates leading the avatars in discussion of a mathematical task; the final paper will include data from ten additional teacher candidates around two additional mathematical tasks. Preliminary results indicate distinct profiles for how teacher candidates elicit and respond to student thinking along the dimensions of degree of responsiveness and intellectual work, suggesting different resources for teacher educators to build on in supporting teacher candidates around this practice.

Authors

• Dana Lynn Grosser-Clarkson, University of Maryland

• Elizabeth Fleming, University of Maryland - College Park

• Daniel M. Levin, University of Maryland - College Park

• Peter Chin, University of Maryland - College Park