Australian Journal of Teacher Education - Vol 47 - Issue 3 - Article 2 - Mathematics Teachers’ Feedback Responses to Students’ Errors and Unexpected Strategies

Oct 15, 2026

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Apart of students learning in the classroom depends on how the teacher responds to their thinking. The study connects teachers’ feedback responses to errors and unexpected strategies by proposing an analytical framework with three criteria: focus of answers, knowledge type in teacher-centered responses, and actions in student-centered responses. Feedback was coded from questionnaire data collected from mathematics teachers about curricular practices. Results show two-thirds use teacher-centered responses, with more proposing than asking in student-centered answers, and distinct evaluation patterns for unexpected strategies versus errors.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Feedback Responses to Student Actions in the Classroom

Framework and Objectives

Methodology

Results

Discussion and Conclusions

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 47 Issue 3 | Article 2 | | --- | --- | | 2022
Mathematics Teachers’Feedback Responses to Students’Errors and Unexpected Strategies
Andrés Pinzón
Universidad de los Andes
Pedro Gómez
Universidad de los Andes
María José González
Universidad de Cantabria
Follow this and additional works at: [https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte)
Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons | | Recommended Citation Pinzón, A., Gómez, P., & González, M. (2022) . Mathematics Teachers’ Feedback Responses to Students’Errors and Unexpected Strategies. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 47(3) . [http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2022v47n3.2](http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2022v47n3.2) [This Journal Article is posted at Research Online.](This Journal Article is posted at Research Online.)[ ](This Journal Article is posted at Research Online.)[https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol47/iss3/2](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol47/iss3/2) Mathematics Teachers’ Feedback Responses to Students’ Errors and Unexpected Strategies Andrés Pinzón. Pedro Gómez María J. González Universidad de Cantabria. Santander, España. Abstract: Apart of students learning in the classroom depends on how the teacher responds to their thinking. The literature has separately addressed teachers ’feedback responses to errors and unexpected strategies that students put into play when solving tasks. We propose a framework to analyze these responses together based on three criteria: the focus of the answers (teacher or student), the type of knowledge (conceptual or procedural) that the teacher puts into play in the teacher-centered answers, and the types of actions (asking and proposing) involved in student-centered responses. We codified and analyzed the feedback responses ofa group of mathematics teachers to a questionnaire that inquired about their curricular practices. We found similarities in their reports of responses to students’ errors and unexpected strategies: two-thirds ofteachers have a teacher-centered response. For the student-centered answers, the number of responses of the teacher in which he/sheproposes activities is three times the number of responses in which he/she asks students questions. Furthermore, responses to unexpected strategies differ from responses to errors because teachers evaluate, correct, and accept those strategies. Introduction Teachers’ decisions affect students ’ learning opportunities (Herbst et al., 2016) . Understanding teachers’ decision making can help teacher educators improve the quality of teaching (Bishop, 2008) . There are various circumstances in the classroom that require teachers to make decisions spontaneously; that is, decisions that must be made in circumstances that teachers perceive as problematic in relation to the learning of their students and that are not necessarily part of their lesson script and/or their class routines. Two of these circumstances are errors and unexpected strategies of the students. Therefore, a part of the students ’learning in the classroom depends on the way in which the teacher responds to their mistakes (Ball & Bass, 2003; Ma, 1999; Son & Sinclair, 2010) and to the unexpected strategies they bring into play when solving tasks (Son, 2016; Son & Crespo, 2009) . What kind of feedback response do math teachers give to their students ’ errors and their strategies when approaching tasks? In this article, we address this question by identifying and characterizing the feedback responses practicing teachers report to students ’ unexpected errors and strategies, and organizing these responses with respect to three criteria. The first is the focus of the responses: teacher or student. When the answer focuses on the teacher, we consider the type of knowledge that the teacher brings into play: conceptual or procedural. When the response is student-centered, we consider the type of action,

FAQs

What criteria does the study use to analyze teachers’ feedback responses?

It uses three criteria: whether the response focuses on the teacher or student, the knowledge type (conceptual or procedural) in teacher-centered answers, and the action type (asking or proposing) in student-centered responses.

How do teachers’ feedback patterns differ between errors and unexpected strategies?

Teachers’ responses to unexpected strategies differ because teachers evaluate, correct, and accept those strategies, unlike their responses to errors.

What did the study find about teacher-centered versus student-centered feedback?

About two-thirds of teachers give teacher-centered responses. For student-centered answers, the teacher proposes activities about three times as often as the teacher asks students questions.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Franzy