This project is creating, evaluating, and disseminating a collection of approximately 60 videos that illustrate children's mathematical thinking and learning. The videos are being used in mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers and are specifically designed to be integrated with "Connecting Mathematics for Elementary Teachers (CMET)," a textbook authored by three of the principal investigators on this project. The videos of children are helping prospective elementary teachers better understand children's mathematical thinking, thereby supporting better instructional choices on the part of teachers and improved learning of mathematics by children in their classes. The videos are illustrating aspects of research on children's learning of mathematics that are described in the CMET textbook. Results related to this project are being disseminated through conference presentations and workshops for faculty who teach mathematics for elementary teachers. The videos are being made available on the web.
The videos produced in this project are significantly impacting the mathematical understanding and teaching of prospective elementary teachers by providing them with in-depth knowledge of how the subject matter they will be teaching is connected to children's mathematical thinking. This project has the potential to fundamentally change the way mathematics educators prepare elementary pre-service teachers to teach mathematics to children.