Abstract

This study examined the effects of an intervention included in a mathematics methods course on preservice teachers’ (N = 29) ability to specify learning goals of a lesson (Skill 1), collect evidence of student learning (Skill 2), generate hypotheses about the effect of teaching on student learning (Skill 3), and use the analysis to propose alternative teaching strategies to improve the lesson (Skill 4; Hiebert et al., 2007). I examined the effect of direct instruction on Skill 1 on the development of the other three skills. Also, the study examined the nature of specifying learning goals (Skill 1) following instruction that did and did not address this skill. A two-group pretest-posttest experimental design was used to compare the effect of two conditions (Students Learning and Learning Goals) on skill development. Both conditions received classroom instruction on Skills 2, 3, and 4, but only the Learning Goals condition received instruction on Skill 1. The instruction included skill-based instruction and video analysis using an observation framework that was designed by the participants in the study. Four topics related to the development of children’s algebraic reasoning were used for instruction, practice, and assessment of all four skills. A subsample of preservice teachers from both conditions (n = 8) were individually interviewed to examine the nature of Skill 1. The results revealed significant improvement on Skills 2, 3, and 4 following instruction, however the instruction provided to each groups had the same effect on the development of these three skills. The results demonstrated no difference on mean Skill 1 performance on the post-assessment. The interview data revealed qualitative differences in the nature of Skill 1. Specifically, compared to the preservice teachers in the Learning Goals group, those without Skill 1 training (Student Learning group) showed a greater tendency to focus on students’ behaviors to identify learning goals, and this limited their ability to specify learning goals across different teaching contexts. Overall, the results indicated that Skills 2, 3, and 4 do not develop naturally and are learned. As such, the results lend support for teacher training programs to incorporate instruction on these three skills.