Noticing numeracy now! Examining changes in preservice teachers’ noticing, knowledge, and attitudes

This study examined the impact of an intervention, focused on professional noticing of children’s conceptual development in whole number and arithmetic reasoning, on preservice elementary teachers’ (PSETs’) professional noticing skills, attitudes toward mathematics, and mathematical knowledge for teaching mathematics. A video-based professional noticing module, situated in the pedagogies of practice framework, was used with 224 PSETs from five universities. Comparison data was also collected with similar groups not participating in the instructional module. Through pre- and post-assessments, findings indicated that PSETs can develop sound professional noticing skills as a result of participation in a video-based module. The impact on attitudes toward mathematics was less convincing as significant changes were revealed in intervention as well as comparison groups. We hypothesized the potential for professional noticing of children’s mathematical thinking to serve as a mechanism for increasing the capabilities of PSETs to negotiate the complexities of mathematics teaching and learning; however, mathematics knowledge for teaching showed no significant increase for either group.