Influences of Preservice Teachers' Knowledge of Student Understanding Developed in Methods Course on Their Mathematics Representations in Teaching Whole

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Fostering Teacher Knowledge: Varying Approaches to Mathematics Methods in Teacher Education

Abstract

Teachers' understanding of students' mathematics learning presumably shapes their effective use of multiple representations in teaching. This study examined the relationship between preservice teachers' knowledge of students’ thinking of whole numbers developed in their mathematics methods course and the types and quality of representations that they used in their practicum classrooms. It revealed that participants improved their knowledge of student thinking of whole numbers in their methods course and had relatively high-quality representations in their teaching. However, their knowledge of student thinking did not influence their choice of representations nor the quality of the representations that they used.

Authors

• Jian Wang, Texas Tech University

• Minju Yi, Texas Tech University

• Raymond Flores, Texas Tech University

• Hyunjin Shim, Texas Tech University

• Elizabeth Goldberg, Texas Tech University

• Shannon Watson