How Preservice Teachers Respond to Student Informal Strategies: A Cross-Cultural Study Between the United States and Korea

• In Event: International Education Across the Years

Abstract

This cross-cultural study investigates how preservice teachers (PSTs) in the U.S. and Korea analyze and respond to student errors in multiplication and division. Findings report that PSTs in both countries had more difficulty in analyzing student errors/strategies in division than multiplication. Differences in how PSTs responded to student errors/strategies were: Korean PSTs provided richer mathematical approaches than did the U.S. PSTs; U.S. PSTs tended to guide students to recognize their errors on their own while Korean PSTs used teacher-led explanation to help students; and Korean PSTs responded by the use of manipulatives and visual representations to support students’ mathematical understandings while U.S. PSTs did not. We will discuss how each country’s cases inform the design of mathematics teacher preparation courses.

Authors

• Hee-Jeong Kim, Korea University

• HyungMi Cho, Jeonju National University of Education

• Hea-Jin Lee, The Ohio State University - Lima