Characteristics of teachers' lesson observations: A comparison of inservice and pre-service teachers' gestures

Overview & Synopsis

This study focuses on lesson observation, which is a key teacher activity in a lesson study. Although previous studies have described the act of observation by particular individuals in particular contexts, there has been limited scientific discussion on teacher expertise that the lesson observation is based on, or how such expertise is formed. Based on the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic, this study addresses the research question: What praxeological equipment is used for lesson observations? Thus, questionnaire evidences for pre-service and in-service teachers were conducted and all praxeologies extracted from them were used as a reference model to analyse teachers' observational activities. In conclusion, the commonalities/differences in observation tendencies between preservice and in-service teachers, according to years of teaching experience, as well as the relationship between mathematical content-related praxeology and other ones are discussed.