Building teachers’ expertise in understanding, assessing and developing children’s mathematical thinking: the power of task-based, one-to-one assessment interviews

• DOI: 10.1007/s11858-011-0345-2
• Publication Date: 2011-06-28T06:00:18Z
• Authors: Doug Clarke; Barbara Clarke; Anne Roche
• Keywords: Subject matter

In this paper, we outline the benefits to teachers’ expertise of the use of research-based, one-to-one assessment interviews in mathematics. Drawing upon our research and professional development work with teachers and students in primary and middle years in Australia and the research of others, we argue that the use of the interviews builds teacher expertise through enhancing teachers’ knowledge of individual and group understanding of mathematics, and also provides an understanding of typical learning paths in various mathematical domains. The use of such interviews also provides a model for teachers’ interactions and discussions with children, building both their pedagogical content knowledge and their subject matter knowledge.