Connecting mathematical knowledge with engagement in mathematics teaching practices

International audienceResearch suggests that mathematical knowledge is likely to influence how mathematics is taught. In turn, how mathematics is taught impacts students’ opportunities to learn mathematics. We report on a study examining the connection between preservice teachers’ mathematical knowledge and the nature of their eliciting and interpreting of student thinking. Our findings suggest that preservice teachers elicit and interpret student thinking with more emphasis on student understanding in situations in which they have strong mathematical knowledge of an algorithm used by the student compared to situations in which they have weaker mathematical knowledge about the algorithm used