Chapter 9: Situating Learning for Secondary Mathematics Prospective Teachers Within the Context of Rehearsals: Challenges and Resulting Adaptations

Almost three decades ago, Ball (1988) argued that prospective teachers (PTs) need to “unlearn to teach” (p. 40) and that one of the inherent dilemmas of mathematics teacher education is to counter a vision of teaching and learning mathematics that PTs have developed through engaging in apprenticeships of observation (Lortie, 1975). As mathematics teacher educators (MTEs), we ask our PTs to learn to enact instruction (e.g., a launch, explore, summarize sequence) that is different from what they may have experienced, requiring a depth of mathematical understanding that they may not have yet developed. Our desire to provide educational experiences that advance PTs beyond their existing ways of thinking about teaching and learning mathematics influences the ways that we design and implement mathematics methods courses.