Teacher noticing of student mathematics: Lesson play experience

Lesson play is a relatively new construct in mathematics education. Until now, it has primarily been used with prospective teachers in a university setting as an alternative to traditional lesson planning. In this study, the notion of a lesson play experience is introduced and explored as a professional development tool for practicing teachers. For this study, each of two teachers wrote a lesson play related to part of a mathematics lesson they planned to teach. Once the play was submitted, a pre-lesson interview took place in which the script was discussed. The two teachers were then observed while teaching the lesson, and finally a post-lesson interview was conducted. The results suggest that the lesson play experience can be an effective tool for inservice teacher professional development.