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Examining the supervision of mathematics student teachers through analysis of conference communications

“…A student teaching supervision approach called educative supervision based on sociocultural theory was proposed by Blanton et al (2001). An educative supervisor as the more knowledgeable person can mediate the development of the student teacher within her zone of proximal development, helping the student teacher get ownership of examining her own practice and finding alternative approaches to instruction.…”

“…When using an educative approach, the supervisor derives the focus of the supervision from the student teacher's own classroom experiences and uses open-ended questioning to engage the student teacher as an active constructor of his/her own knowledge about teaching. This approach is in sharp contrast to "evaluative" supervision through which the supervisor is focused on conducting authoritative evaluations of student teachers (Blanton et al, 2001).…”

“…In a survey, 302 cooperating teachers expressed their perceptions of ambiguity in the universities' purposes and expectations and revealed a need to build more communication between university programs and cooperating teachers (Koskela & Ganser, 1995). Particularly for mathematics student teachers, if we want to support their transformation of mathematics education reform ideas into practice, there is a need to close the gap between university programs and schools (Frykholm, 1996(Frykholm, , 1998Blanton et al, 2001).…”

“…Research suggests that the nature of the supervision affects the role of the university supervisor in student teaching. Blanton et al (2001) found that the university supervisors' use of "educative" supervision, an approach that puts the student teacher as an active constructor of his or her knowledge about teaching mathematics, resulted in the university supervisor being able to support a student teacher's development in ways consistent with the mathematics teacher education program. Also, in studies where university supervisors frequently (i.e., weekly) visited student teachers, their influence on the student teachers became more evident (Frykholm, 1998;LaBoskey & Richert, 2002).…”

“…Study results about classroom cooperating teachers and university supervisors in supporting student teacher growth have been mixed. Some investigations reveal the centrality of cooperating teachers' responsibility for student teacher learning (e.g., Koskela & Ganser, 1995;Koerner & Rust with Baumgartner 2002;Vacc & Bright, 1999;Frykholm, 1996;Beck & Kosnik, 2002) while others bring to light the vital importance of university supervisors in supporting student teachers' implementation of recent reforms and theories learned in coursework (e.g., Freidus, 2002;LaBoskey & Richert, 2002;Frykholm, 1998;Blanton, Berenson, & Norwood, 2001). Of these, a very limited number focus on the supervision of mathematics student teachers.…”