Influencing Elementary Preservice Teacher Professional Noticing through Focused Reflections

This paper reports the results of a study conducted in an elementary education mathematics methods course aimed at increasing elementary preservice teachers' (EPTs) level of professional noticing. Weekly reflections conducted by EPTs from tutoring sessions were video recorded and scored using the Framework for Learning to Notice Student Mathematical Thinking Rubric developed by Van E (2011) to determine the EPTs' level of noticing. Participants were also asked to complete a pre- and post-reflection of their mentor teacher's classroom to assess how the noticing intervention might translate to observations in the classroom. A final component of data collection included reflections from a comparison group of EPTs. Results indicated that there were no significant changes in the tutoring reflections for the participating or comparison group of EPTs. However, the participating group of EPTs demonstrated a significant increase in their level of noticing for classroom observations, providing evidence that levels of noticing could translate between instructional settings.