Analysing Practice in Preservice Mathematics Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper presents the case of a year long course based on fieldwork activities provided to secondary school mathematics preservice teachers, just before their student teaching practicum. The activities are a first experience in investigating professional practice—some concern the school as a whole, while others focus on the mathematics class. Using a qualitative and collaborative methodology, we discuss the implications of this work for preservice teachers’ education. We argue that such fieldwork activities may help prospective teachers in developing a professional discourse and in assuming a professional identity, acquiring new ways of expressing new educational ideas and assuming a new point of view about educational phenomena.