Using Critical Events in Pre-Service Training: Examining the Coherence Level Between Interpretations of Students’ Mathematical Thinking and Interpretations of Teacher's Responses

The participants of this study were asked to report on critical events that hold the opportunity for teachers’ decision-making to build on students’ mathematical thinking. The goal of this study is to analyze the coherence between pre-service mathematics teachers' interpretations of students’ contributions and their interpretation of teachers’ responses in these critical events. An analysis of 37 reports indicates that while PTs show the ability to identify critical events and to interpret students’ thinking within the event, there is low coherence between their interpretations and their analyses of the teacher’s responses. One possible implication is that teacher educators and expert teachers who train pre-service teachers should be more explicit when discussing the reasoning behind teachers’ responses to students’ mathematical thinking.