Pre-service Teachers’ Conceptions of Mathematical Argumentation

Drawing on a situated perspective on learning, we analyzed written, open-ended journals of 52 pre-service teachers (PSTs) concurrently enrolled in mathematics and pedagogy with field experience courses for elementary education majors. Our study provides insights into PSTs’ conceptualizations of mathematical argumentation in terms of its meanings. The data reveals how PSTs perceive teacher actions, teaching strategies, classroom expectations, mathematics content, and tasks that facilitate student engagement in mathematical argumentation. It also shows what instructional benefits of enacting mathematical argumentation in the elementary mathematics classroom they perceive.

Park, H. & Magiera, M. T. (2019). Pre-service teachers’ conceptions of mathematical argumentation. In S. Otten, A. Candela, Z. deAraujo, C. Haines, & C. Munter (Eds.), Proceedings of the Forty-First Mnnual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 1264-1268). St. Louis, MO: University of Missouri.