Abstract
This article examines how an unbalance scale task prompted seven preservice teachers (PSTs) to confront and revise their assumptions about student thinking. Tasked with predicting how early elementary students (K-2) might make an unbalanced scale equal, teacher candidates largely anticipated additive or subtractive solutions and less frequently redistributive solutions. However, several students proposed creative strategies including one who removed all the cubes creating an equal 0 = 0 scenario. This moment sparked deep reflection and a broader reconsideration of what it means to anticipate diverse students reasoning. We discuss implications for teacher preparation and curriculum design that supports flexible relational understandings of equality.
Recommended Citation
Picot, Christine J. and Josip Slisko
(2025)
"Anticipating the Unexpected: Preservice teachers learn through an unbalanced scale task,"
Transformations: Vol. 11:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/transformations/vol11/iss1/3
Included in
Elementary Education Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons