Developing the Practice of Teacher Questioning through a K-2 Elementary Mathematics Field Experience

Noticing Student Mathematical Thinking: Self-Contemplation of a Pre-Service Teacher

“…More specifically in mathematics education, teachers (a) decide the most effective questions aligning with the mathematical goal and most appropriate questions for particular students, (b) attend to student thinking related to the mathematical goal, and (c) determine the probes and follow-up questions in response to students' thinking. We agree with Schwartz (2015) in that these three actions of teacher questioning are associated with the three components of the instructional triangle (i.e., content, student, and teacher). We further see the correspondence of these three actions of teacher questioning with Jacobs et al's (2010, p. 172) three key aspects of "professional noticing of children's' mathematical thinking" mentioned above.…”

“…Teacher knowledge and practices have been central to teacher development (Grossman, 1990;Grossman et al, 2009). Since understanding students' mathematical thinking requires both theory-driven knowledge and practices such as noticing and questioning (Norton et al, 2011;Schwartz, 2015), both teacher knowledge and teacher noticing literature guided this study. In this section, we also present the literature about the role of teacher education opportunities, particularly the field experience where interaction with students is possible, on pre-service teachers' understanding of student thinking.…”

“…For these three aspects of noticing, teacher questioning also appeared to be a core skill because the types of questions and probes that teachers posed helped them to elicit students' thinking. Schwartz (2015) considered teacher questioning as a high-leverage teacher practice because (i) questioning is a core and frequent teacher action in "the work of teaching" for any content and any teaching method, (ii) effective use of questioning has a potential to improve student learning, and (iii) teacher questioning is a competence that can be developed in teacher education and/or professional development programs. Schwartz (2015) further argued that teacher questioning does not stand alone as a teacher skill, rather it is a practice which occurs within the interaction of content, teacher, and student.…”

“…Schwartz (2015) considered teacher questioning as a high-leverage teacher practice because (i) questioning is a core and frequent teacher action in "the work of teaching" for any content and any teaching method, (ii) effective use of questioning has a potential to improve student learning, and (iii) teacher questioning is a competence that can be developed in teacher education and/or professional development programs. Schwartz (2015) further argued that teacher questioning does not stand alone as a teacher skill, rather it is a practice which occurs within the interaction of content, teacher, and student. More specifically in mathematics education, teachers (a) decide the most effective questions aligning with the mathematical goal and most appropriate questions for particular students, (b) attend to student thinking related to the mathematical goal, and (c) determine the probes and follow-up questions in response to students' thinking.…”

Impact of a Field-Based Mathematics Methods Course on Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Specialized Content Knowledge: The Case of Area and Perimeter

“…Is the practice accessible to learners of teaching and be able to be revisited many times with increased sophistications? Evidence from research suggests that the practice of teacher questioning does need to be taught rather than assuming teaching experience alone will build the competence (Schwartz, 2015). Also, Ball et al, (2008) posit that teachers who have SCK have the knowledge of or ability to pose questions that support students in building mathematical ideas.…”