Restructuring Student Teaching to Focus on Students’ Mathematical Thinking Blake E. Peterson Brigham Young University Keith R. Leatham Brigham Young University

Guiding Principle In order for student teachers to be students of teaching, they need to spend significant, structured time studying the craft of teaching.

Our Purpose Student teachers will learn how to elicit, recognize and use students’ mathematical thinking in order to develop mathematical concepts.

Hallmark Features  Pairs and clusters  Deemphasize survival  Deemphasize classroom management  Selective teaching  Emphasize “the lesson”  Emphasize anticipating, eliciting, recognizing and using student thinking  A variety of reflective learning-to-teach activities

Student Teaching Structure WeekLearning-to-teach Activities 1 Become familiar with classroom & students Focused Observations Daily Journal Student Interviews 2Observe/Reflect 3-5Teach/Observe/Reflect 6-13Teach “full” (half) load 14Teach/Observe/Reflect

Our Main Research Question How do student teachers think about (talk about, write about) their students’ mathematical thinking?

Student Teaching Structure WeekLearning-to-teach Activities 1 Become familiar with classroom & students Focused Observations Daily Journal Student Interviews 2Observe/Reflect 3-5Teach/Observe/Reflect 6-13Teach “full” (half) load 14Teach/Observe/Reflect

Daily Journals  Plan for the day  Describe observed mathematical thinking where a student was either frustrated or appeared to have misconceptions. If you were to work with this student what questions would you ask and when would you ask them? If you were to use this student’s thinking as part of a class discussion, how would you use it?  Other interesting observations

Student Teaching Structure WeekLearning-to-teach Activities 1 Become familiar with classroom & students Focused Observations Daily Journal Student Interviews 2Observe/Reflect 3-5Teach/Observe/Reflect 6-13Teach “full” (half) load 14Teach/Observe/Reflect

 Design a lesson as a pair  Lesson plan template requires anticipation of student thinking  Teach the lesson (separately)  Peers observe student thinking during lesson  Participate in reflection meeting  Focus on the lesson goals, task design and the correlation between the two  Write a reflection paper