Abstract
Teachers use their practical intentions – their in-the-moment goals and concerns – to craft their spontaneous classroom decisions. This research study explored the content of (and relationship between) beginning teachers’ practical intentions by asking six student teachers in mathematics to participate in a stimulated recall interview of their teaching. These interviews were analyzed for the different practical intentions that teachers articulated as having experienced as they taught. Four prominent categories of practical intentions were found: the desire to maintain lesson momentum; the desire to cover content; the desire to support student needs; and the desire to foster independent student thinking. Furthermore, it was found that different practical intentions often occurred simultaneously, as teachers often expressed the desire to achieve multiple instructional goals within a given moment of instruction. Implications for teacher education are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Zimmerman, Aaron
(2015)
"The Simultaneity of Beginning Teachers’ Practical Intentions,"
Mid-Western Educational Researcher: Vol. 27:
Iss.
2, Article 2.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/mwer/vol27/iss2/2
