Jennifer M. Tobias

Prospective Teachers’ Attention to Children’s Thinking About Integers, Temperature, and Distance

The study reported on in this chapter describes the justifications that elementary and middle school prospective teachers (PTs) made as they examined the temperature story that a Grade 5 student posed for an integer subtraction number sentence. The ways that the PTs made sense of the student’s story that used integer subtraction as distance are described, providing further insight into the ways that PTs may reason about temperature stories in relation to an integer subtraction number sentence. PTs’ justifications focused on attributes like order, rather than a magnitude discrepancy in the story. PTs need more experience examining stories for integer addition and subtraction in order to promote discussion and reflection on the various complexities of posing stories for integer addition and subtraction number sentences: consistency, realism, and subtraction as distance.