What role does professional noticing play? Examining connections with affect and mathematical knowledge for teaching among preservice teachers

Abstract

This study examined the intersections of preservice elementary teachers’ (PSET) professional noticing (PN) of children’s mathematical thinking, two mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) domains: mathematics content knowledge (MCK) and mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK), and two affective domains: attitudes and dispositions toward teaching mathematics. An instructional module focused on PN of children’s early algebraic thinking, as defined by Jacobs et al. (J Res Math Educ 41: 169–202, 2010) to include three components: attending, interpreting, and deciding, was implemented with 170 PSETs. The PSETs, who participated in the instructional module, the implementation group, showed significant positive growth in attending, interpreting, and attitudes toward mathematics. There was no significant change in dispositions toward teaching mathematics and a decrease was observed in PSET deciding and MKT. A comparison group of 126 PSETs enrolled in mathematics methods courses did not participate in the instructional module. PSETs in the comparison group showed a decrease across all measures including attending, interpreting, deciding, attitudes, dispositions, and MKT. Results showed statistically significant connections within and between some of the constructs; however, the limitations of the study call for further investigation.