Abstract

Over recent years, research on mathematics teacher educators has been focused on different types of knowledge necessary for teaching prospective teachers. Despite such attention towards what mathematics teacher educators (should) know, few studies have addressed how such knowledge is enacted in the form of teaching practices within mathematics teacher education programs. In other words, we still need to investigate how mathematics teacher educators translate their mathematical and teaching knowledge into actual teaching practices; that is, modelling. This shift in focus implies new theoretical and methodological challenges. It is necessary to understand mathematics teacher educators’ teaching practices as situated practice towards prospective teachers, who play a key role in the process of learning to teach mathematics. Thus, it is fundamental to investigate how prospective teachers (can) get involved in this process. We suggest that modelling is a crucial concept for studying mathematics teacher educators’ teaching practices and how prospective teachers experience these practices. We define modelling as the purposeful and explicit practice of displaying specific teaching behaviours with the aim of promoting professional learning among prospective teachers. We believe that the systematic use of modelling could provide new and valuable learning opportunities for both mathematics teacher educators and prospective teachers.