We extend research that connects teacher noticing expertise and instructional quality by providing rich illustrations of these connections at three levels of noticing expertise. Grounded in a vision of teaching that is responsive to children’s mathematical thinking, we investigated connections between teachers’ expertise in noticing children’s thinking and their centering of children’s thinking in whole-class discussions. We showcase three upper elementary school teachers as focal teachers, each with a different level of noticing expertise. Data were drawn from a large design study and included teachers’ written responses to an artifact-based noticing assessment and video of their whole-class discussions focused on children’s strategies for fraction story problems. We found that increased expertise in noticing was associated with increased centering of children’s thinking in whole-class discussions. As noticing expertise increased across our focal teachers, their primary uses of strategy details in whole-class discussions shifted from only making details visible; to visible and highlighted; to visible, highlighted, and collectively explored. Furthermore, increased noticing expertise was associated with increased use of visual and verbal supports to foreground strategy details, increased engagement of children with strategy details, and increased opportunities to link strategy details to broader mathematical ideas. This study provides insight into the importance of expertise in teacher noticing for whole-class discussions while also illustrating the mathematical and pedagogical richness of the details of children’s mathematical thinking.
Jacobs, V. R. & Empson, S. B. (2025). Connecting expertise in noticing children’s mathematical thinking and conducting whole-class discussions. ZDM – Mathematics Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-025-01713-z