“Bigger number means you plus!”—Teachers learning to use clinical interviews to understand students’ mathematical thinking

Abstract

This paper examines the perceptions and understandings of ten grades 1 and 2 Singapore mathematics teachers as they learned to use clinical interviews (Ginsburg, Human Development 52:109–128, 2009) to understand students’ mathematical thinking. This study challenged teachers’ pedagogical assumptions about what it means to teach for student understanding. Clinical task-based interviews opened a window into students’ knowledge, problem-solving and reasoning, and helped teachers reflect on their teaching and assessment of student learning. Teachers also learnt about what it means to establish a culture of thoughtful questioning in the classroom and developed an emerging awareness that this requires a readiness to hear students’ ideas and connect informal or invented strategies with classroom mathematics.