Pre-service Teachers’ Imaginary Creative Approaches to Address Students’ Erroneous Understanding of Algebraic Expressions

This study examines the creative responses of pre-service mathematics teachers in their lesson plays designed to address sixth-grade students’ misconceptions about algebraic expressions. This research employs a qualitative descriptive research design, involving 78 third-year students enrolled in an elementary mathematics education program. Using lesson plays, the pre-service teachers developed hypothetical lessons that demonstrated how dialogues between teachers and students could unfold in a classroom. The research revealed that the pre-service teachers exhibited pedagogical and mathematical flexibility in addressing students’ misconceptions in algebraic expressions. While the participants did not display mathematical and pedagogical originality, they were able to create a variety of hypothetical instructional settings. This study highlights the potential of lesson plays as an effective tool to examine pre-service teachers’ creativity and explores various pedagogical approaches in their hypothetical instruction. The findings suggest that teacher education programs should include more opportunities for pre-service teachers to develop their creativity using lesson plays and for preparing them to effectively and originally address students’ misconceptions about algebraic expressions.