PRESERVICE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT INTERVIEWS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETENT QUESTIONING

Abstract

Recent research and reform documents in mathematics and science education have highlighted the importance of preservice teacher education that focuses on understanding students’ reasoning and modifying instruction accordingly. Utilizing the constructs of core practices and the professional noticing as lenses with which to examine the development of preservice teachers’ questioning practice, we conducted a case study of 1 pair of preservice teachers as they performed weekly formative assessment interviews to elicit student thinking during 1 semester. Our study was driven by the following research questions: (1) How do preservice teachers develop their questioning practice and ability to notice students’ thinking about mathematical and science concepts? (2) How can these questioning practices be further developed? Results suggest that with weekly practice and reflection, preservice teachers can develop their questioning practice within the context of face-to-face interaction with students and that the ways they question students can change when given opportunities to interact with them and analyze their thinking. By having participants attend to what they were professionally noticing about students’ thinking, we contend that they learned to adapt their questioning techniques to ask students more competent questions. Participants also exhibited 2 areas of questioning practice ripe for improvement—asking leading questions and missed opportunities to probe students’ thinking. While providing clinical field experiences to preservice teachers is not novel, we suggest the importance of foregrounding practices that elicit student mathematical and scientific thinking through an iterative process of enactment and reflection to develop questioning practice and the ability to notice.