An investigation of pre-service teachers' statisticalknowledge for teaching in a practicum based lesson study

The aim of this study was to improve pre-service middle school mathematics teachers' statistical knowledge for teaching via practicum based lesson study. Also how practicum based lesson study supports or restricts statistical knowledge for teaching was examined. Holistic single case study design was adopted. The participants were three pre-service teachers who enrolled in a public university in Ankara. Pre-service teachers implemented three lesson study cycles. The data were collected through statistical knowledge for teaching tasks, interviews, documents, video recordings, observations, field notes and reflective papers. The descriptive analysis was used. Key developmental understandings were defined and changes in participants' knowledge of content, teaching and students were examined. Also, how participants' knowledge has changed among and within lesson study cycles was examined. In addition, how lesson study has supported or restricted participants' development was examined. Results showed that participants improved statistical knowledge for teaching by attending practicum based lesson study. When pre-service teachers realized that doing statistics started with the formulation of questions, other key developmental understandings have developed. It was observed that the changes in knowledge of content supported the development of knowledge of teaching and students. Furthermore changes in knowledge of teaching and of students were also found related. To conclude, the practicum based lesson study developed pre-service teachers' knowledge for teaching statistics. Hence, the integration of lesson study to undergraduate programs for teacher education is recommended. The key developmental understandings emerged in this study could contribute to the theoretical framework for describing teacher knowledge for teaching statistics.