"Expanding on Prior Conceptualizations of Teacher Noticing"

Professors Elizabeth van Es (right) and Miriam Sherin, Northwestern University, published an article on teacher noticing in The International Journal on Mathematics Education.

The title of the article is “Expanding on Prior Conceptualizations of Teacher Noticing.”
 
van Es, professor and faculty director of the UCI Teacher Education program, is a learning scientist who studies teacher learning and the design and improvement of teacher preparation and professional development. Her research foci also include teaching mathematics for equity, teaching practice, video and teacher learning, and the design of learning environments. ​She currently leads two projects funded by NSF and the UC Office of the President to develop teachers’ noticing practices to advance equity in mathematics education and to better prepare teacher candidates to support multilingual learners. She is the co-founder of the UCI Teacher Academy that provides high-quality professional development to the greater OC education community.
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 Abstract

While recent research demonstrates that teacher noticing is a core construct of teaching, it also raises new questions about this construct. Here, we offer an expanded framework that addresses three key questions. Specifically, we suggest that attending involves not only selecting particular features of instruction to observe, but also disregarding aspects of classroom interactions that are less consequential. In addition, we propose that a stance of inquiry about observed phenomena is central to drawing inferences about observed phenomena. Finally, we extend the boundaries of teacher noticing to include shaping, the act of creating interactions that provide increased opportunities to attend to and interpret noteworthy mathematical interactions. In other words, teachers are not simply passive bystanders in the act of noticing, rather they shape interactions to gain access to additional information to allow for further observation and interpretation of student thinking.