Development of Pre-service Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Skills in Interpretation of Student Thinking in the Context of Lesson Study

Mathematics teachers’ knowledge of students’ thinking has an important effect on the teaching-learning process (Cai, Ding & Wang, 2014; Clarkson & Presmeg, 2008). Teachers who understand student thinking sufficiently can interpret student thinking effectively and can anticipate student misconceptions, difficulties, and errors. Furthermore, they can overcome these challenges with appropriate explanations (An, Kulm & Wu, 2004; Ball, Thames & Phelps, 2008). The research revealed, however, that teachers/pre-service teachers have difficulty interpreting student thinking (Crepso, 2000; 2003). This led to the conclusion that pre-service teachers need to develop skills in understanding and interpreting the student perspective (Hiebert, Morris & Glass 2003). The scope of this study was to improve pre-service middle school mathematics teachers’ knowledge and interpretation of student thinking through lesson study. Three senior pre-service teachers participated in this study. Pre-service teachers implemented three practice lesson study cycles in a real classroom. Data was obtained from documents, video recordings, observations, field notes, and reflective papers. In order to analyze data, content analysis was used. Results showed that the pre-service teachers had some challenges knowing and interpreting student thinking at the beginning of the study. As lesson study cycles proceeded, pre-service teachers began to take into account student thinking, design and implement lesson plans according to students’ needs and difficulties .