Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate prospective elementary school teachers’ mathematical process knowledge related to argumentation . To achieve this, we focus on prospective teachers’ mathematical argumentation as a key aspect of the mathematical knowledge teachers need for teaching. By referring to the framework of mathematical knowledge for teaching , we pay special attention to “process knowledge” instead of “content knowledge.” The study involves 136 prospective teachers at a national university in Japan who performed a task requiring the evaluation of several incorrect solutions to a realistic problem . The results show that most prospective teachers have difficulties in evaluating or assessing children’s incorrect solutions. This study contributes to the field on a conceptual and a methodological level. Regarding the conceptual framework, we suggest the importance of teachers’ process knowledge in teaching and evaluating, particularly in relation to mathematical argumentation and, regarding methodology, we create a way to help participants notice children’s incomplete thinking.
Keywords
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- 1.
An English translation of the Japanese national curriculum can be retrieved from the following link: http://www.mext.go.jp/en/policy/education/elsec/title02/detail02/1373859.htm.
- 2.
More general official descriptions of teacher training in Japan are available at the following link: https://www.nier.go.jp/English/educationjapan/index.html.
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Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to Gabriel Stylianides, Derya Çelik, and Erik Jacobson for editing and reviewing our chapter. This research is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JP26590234).
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Shinno, Y., Yanagimoto, T., Uno, K. (2018). An Investigation of Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Argumentation from the Perspective of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching and Evaluating. In: Stylianides, G., Hino, K. (eds) Research Advances in the Mathematical Education of Pre-service Elementary Teachers. ICME-13 Monographs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68342-3_11
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