Teacher Questioning to Support Young Students to Interpret and Explain Their Critical Mathematical Thinking

This paper examines the types of teacher questions that assist young students to interpret and explain their critical mathematical thinking (CMT). Focusing on students who enter their first year of formal schooling (aged 5-6 years), this paper draws on data from a one-on-one task based clinical interview conducted with 16 students. Teacher questioning data were analysed for question type (probing, factual, guiding) and further analysed against the conceptualized critical mathematical thinking framework for young students. Findings indicated that when teachers used clarifying, noting relationships, and offering opinions style probing questions, young students were supported to interpret and explain their critical mathematical thinking.