“Helping learners” – Pre-service mathematics teachers’ conceptions of learning support through the lens of their situated noticing – A vignette-based study

Abstract

Learning support is a key aspect of the teaching profession. In particular, promoting mathematics-related learning is a goal when mathematics teachers respond to students’ questions or comments during their work on tasks. “Helping” learners in this sense should be (A) adaptive to the learner’s needs and (B) carry the potential to elicit further learning - both core aspects of learning support informed by a teacher’s noticing in the interaction with the learner. Pre-service teachers’ noticing in this area can be assumed to be still under development and there is hence a need of empirical studies investigating the learning support they suggest to provide. Consequently, this paper presents results from a vignette-based study with n=116 pre-service teachers, providing insight into their difficulties and also perspectives for improvement.