Professional and Curricular Noticing as Scaffolding Frameworks for Developing Preservice Teachers' Understanding of Mathematical Modeling

ABSTRACT Professional organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences recommend the integration of modeling activities into the standard curriculum. The meanings of mathematical modeling can be ambiguous to teachers, which can introduce challenges with implementing modeling into classrooms. Moreover, teacher education programs often offer limited learning opportunities for preservice teachers to develop theoretical knowledge and understanding of mathematical modeling. Mathematics teacher educators need more research‐based knowledge about how to prepare preservice teachers for implementing mathematical modeling. The purpose of this case study is to explore how eight middle and high school preservice teachers' understanding of mathematical modeling evolved through curricular and professional noticing as they completed, analyzed, designed, and enacted modeling activities. After participating in professional development for a semester, the preservice teachers demonstrated growth in establishing a more accurate understanding of the nature of mathematical modeling, reconceptualizing the process of modeling from linear to cyclic and iterative, and shifting the criteria for evaluating the results of modeling from correct to fit, useful, and reliable. This study provides preliminary evidence that curricular and professional noticing are useful scaffolding tools that can transform and expand preservice teachers' understanding of mathematical modeling.