Mathematics teacher educators: an analysis of the perceptions of their instructional practices based on the student-educator «tension»

Abstract

Teacher educators, as professionals who support prospective teachers in the development and improvement of their mathematics teaching, have a strong influence on the construction of the initial knowledge needed for teaching in the school classroom. Within the context of a Master’s degree in teacher education, we analysed the perceptions of students and educators about the instructional activity conducted in courses of a didactic nature. The participants’ opinions were collected through two focus groups that were constructed sequentially and inclusively. A key aspect for students, inasmuch as it is a fundamental characteristic of the instructional practices of their educators, involves the coherence between the latter’s instructional practices and the educational rationality that they seek to install in prospective teachers’ management of didactic-mathematical activities.