Preservice Teachers' Development of Questioning Practices Using Number Talks

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Supporting the Understanding of Number Concepts

Abstract

Developing purposeful questioning is a key component of a successful elementary mathematics program. Number talks, brief classroom discussions about purposefully chosen computational problems, engage teachers in purposeful questioning. This study investigates seventeen preservice teachers’ evolving understandings and practice of questioning techniques as they implemented three number talks as part of a field placement in their teacher education program. Participants’ questions were independently coded according to their purpose by the participant and by the researcher. This paper closely examines those questions the participants coded as probing thinking and the researcher coded as gathering information. Results indicate multiple ways in which preservice teachers and researcher may think about question types and questioning practices

Author

• Kate Meredith Raymond, University of Oklahoma