Do You See What I See? Formative Assessment of Preservice Teachers’ Noticing of Students’ Mathematical Thinking

Abstract

Developing expertise in professional noticing of students’ mathematical thinking takes time and meaningful learning experiences. We used theLessonSketchplatform to create a learning experience for secondary preservice teachers (PSTs) involving an approximation of teaching practice to formatively assess PSTs’ noticing skills of students’ mathematical thinking. Our study showed that approximations of teaching practice embedded within platforms like LessonSketchcan enable mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) to carry out effective formative assessment of PSTs’ professional noticing of students’ mathematical thinking that is meaningful for both PSTs and MTEs. The experience itself as well as its design features and framework used with the assessment can be applied in the work of MTEs who develop teachers’ professional noticing skills of students’ mathematical thinking.