Pre-service teachers’ patterns of questioning while tutoring students with learning disabilities in Algebra 1

Abstract

This study documented changes in the types of questions posed by pre-service teachers (PSTs) who participated in a semester-long professional development (PD) program focused on questioning in algebra. PSTs who participated in the PD—who were conducting 1-1 tutoring for students with learning disabilities during the same time—showed positive changes in the types of questions they posed. PSTs reduced their frequency of closed, leading questions to lead students through solution methods, and they increased their frequency of questions to probe students’ thinking, to focus attention on important mathematical ideas, and to establish mathematical relationships.