skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: The Purposes of Preservice Teachers' Gestures During One-on-One Algebra Tutoring
Gestures are an integral component of mathematics classroom discourse. There is a need to classify the types of gestures that teachers use according to their purposes towards supporting and extending students’ mathematical thinking. We analyzed 16 algebra tutoring sessions between pre-service teachers (PSTs) and high school students to categorize the PSTs’ gestures. We identified 10 categories of PST gestures that we roughly organized into three supercategories: gestures that facilitate shared attention and communication, gestures that emphasize written visual representations, and gestures that support verbal explanations. A taxonomy of gestures based on their purposes will enable further analyses of teacher gesturing and help preservice and practicing teachers use gestures in more purposeful ways.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1813903
PAR ID:
10438525
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association
ISSN:
0163-9676
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Better understanding preservice teachers’ current perceptions toward students with disabilities will allow mathematics educators to create specific strategies for helping students to develop perceptions promoting inclusive classroom environments. To access these perceptions, we developed an online survey that asks respondents about their knowledge of disabilities, their experiences with people with disabilities, and decisions they would make based on classroom scenarios that involve students with disabilities. We gave this survey to 14 preservice secondary school teachers (PSTs). Key findings include five PSTs presented an inclusive perception toward students with disabilities, seven PSTs presented an ambiguous perception and the perceptions of two PSTs remained unknown. All but the latter two PSTs provided at least some evidence of their willingness to fully include students with disabilities in their mathematics classrooms. 
    more » « less
  2. We use a curriculum design framework to analyze how prospective secondary teachers (PSTs) designed and implemented in local schools, lessons that integrate ongoing mathematical topics with one of the four proof themes addressed in the capstone course Mathematical Reasoning and Proving for Secondary Teachers. In this paper we focus on lessons developed around the conditional statements proof theme. We examine the ways in which PSTs integrated conditional statements in their lesson plans, how these lessons were implemented in classrooms, and the challenges PSTs encountered in these processes. Our results suggest that even when PSTs designed rich lesson plans, they often struggled to adjust their language to the students’ level and to maintain the cognitive demand of the tasks. We conclude by discussing possible supports for PSTs’ learning in these areas. 
    more » « less
  3. Providing opportunities for students to talk directly with their peers is a critical dimension to facilitating discussions in mathematics and science, including argumentation‐focused discussions in which students construct arguments and critique others' arguments. Research suggests that supporting student‐to‐student talk and facilitating argumentation discussions are complex and challenging practices for preservice teachers (PSTs). Elementary PSTs from two mathematics and two science methods courses practiced facilitating student‐to‐student talk within the context of an argumentation‐focused discussion. This study's main purpose was to explore the prompts that 29 PSTs used to encourage student‐to‐student talk in a simulated classroom. Findings show the PSTs were able to use direct prompts that encourage student‐to‐student talk but were just as likely to use prompts that may discourage students from talking to each other. Most direct prompts PSTs used to encourage student‐to‐student talk were for the purpose of argumentation construction and/or critique. PSTs were more likely to use indirect prompts, much like Talk Moves, that encourage students to consider others' ideas rather than requesting that students talk with each other. These findings have important implications for future research, as well as for teacher educators and professional learning facilitators who support teachers learning to encourage student‐to‐student talk during argumentation‐focused discussions. 
    more » « less
  4. The adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) require significant shifts in how K-12 science teachers implement instruction and in the ways that science teacher educators prepare future science teachers. The use of anchoring phenomena to drive instruction is one of these significant shifts. However, identifying phenomena that anchor K-12 student learning and support students in developing conceptual understanding while aligning with the NGSS Performance Expectations can be challenging for teachers, especially for preservice teachers (PSTs). This paper outlines the development and implementation of the ASET Phenomenon Tool (Phenomenon Tool) by a group of science education faculty in a networked improvement community (NIC). The Phenomenon Tool aims to help PSTs identify and evaluate student-centered NGSS phenomena. Based on data collected over five academic years, we have found that more PSTs were able to identify a phenomenon after the NIC faculty implemented the Phenomenon Tool in their science methods courses. In this paper, we also present the PSTs’ alternative concepts about phenomena and their weaknesses in describing phenomena. The strategies and possible activities for the use of the phenomenon tool with teachers are discussed at the end. 
    more » « less
  5. Preservice teachers (PSTs) need to be able to use ambitious teaching practices to help support their students’ productive engagement in scientific practices such as analyzing and interpreting data or using evidence-based reasoning to support their claims. Approximations of practice are one way in which teacher educators can support their PSTs to develop their skills in enacting ambitious teaching practices. In this study, we report on the use of a suite of three online, simulated approximations of practice where secondary PSTs practiced facilitating discussions focused on engaging students in argumentation. Using information from both PSTs’ and teacher educators’ perspectives, we examined their main takeaways from each simulation experience, how learning from one simulation was used to prepare for the next simulation, PSTs’ perception of the simulations’ authenticity, and their views about whether they would recommend using this online suite of simulations in future teacher preparation courses. Findings suggested that teacher educators and PSTs alike noted a variety of main takeaways, including understanding the importance of planning and asking good questions. Furthermore, they recommended the suite for use in future teacher education courses. Implications of the work for productively integrating online simulations into teacher education settings are discussed. 
    more » « less