Developing knowledge of prospective primary teachers about mathematics teaching by the use of a multimedia case

This study aims to understand the potential of a multimedia case in mathematics education for developing prospective teachers' knowledge of inquiry-based mathematics teaching and instructional communication that supports it. The multimedia case called "Cube with stickers" was developed in the P3M project - Professional Practices of Mathematics Teachers, by Helia Oliveira, Ana Paula Canavarro and Luis Menezes. The multimedia case combines several artifacts, such as videos from a primary school mathematics classroom, audio recordings of interviews with the teacher, lesson plan, mathematical tasks, students’ responses, class verbal interactions and theoretical texts, to represent an inquiry-based mathematics teaching practice. The study took place in the context of a pre-service training course entitled "Mathematical Communication", which is located in the final year of an undergraduate course that qualifies students to enter a professional master's degree program for prospective primary school teachers. In this study, prospective teachers (N=15) participated, most of them female, aged between 20 and 23. Considering the intended objective, the study applied a qualitative methodology, and the data were obtained from the following sources: (i) students' answers to questions posed through the multimedia case: and (ii) written reflections (both were conducted in groups of 2/3 students). The results show that the multimedia case contributed to the growth of students' knowledge about inquiry-based mathematics teaching, the conceptualization of communication that supports it, and about the teacher's actions and communication styles.FCT