Prospective teachers’ skills of attending, interpreting and responding to content-specific characteristics of mathematics instruction in classroom videos

Abstract

This study explores prospective teachers’ skills of attending, interpreting and responding to content-specific characteristics of mathematics instruction in classroom videos. Prospective teachers analyzed the mathematics instruction of two teachers through four video clips and proposed alternative instructional ways to support the teaching and learning of mathematics. The results indicated that as prospective teachers examined the teachers’ instructional practices, they increased their level of attending and interpretation to content-specific aspects of instruction rather than focusing on generic dimensions of the instruction. When they watched and compared different characteristics of teachers’ mathematics instruction, they provided more detailed and mathematical instructional suggestions.