Potentials and Challenges for Student Teachers in Using Productive Pedagogies in their Field Experience

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to report on an ongoing doctoral study designed to introduce Saudi primary student teachers to the Productive Pedagogies framework in a final year preservice unit in mathematics education, and to investigate its usefulness to guide their practice during their field experience. The focus of this paper is to report on the student teachers' ability to implement the framework in their teaching and to identify any difficulties they have encountered. Each of the participating six student teachers was observed five times during the whole semester for evidence of implementation of the four dimensions of the framework. The observations were followed by individual discussion with the student and their lecturer. In addition, a focus group was conducted with all the participating students at the conclusion of the period of observation to investigate their understanding and views about the use of the framework. The findings indicated that, while the student teachers faced challenges in using Productive Pedagogies in their practice and some of the main dimensions were not highly implemented, there was clear evidence of increasing implementing of each dimension by student teachers over the duration of the observation period.