Listening to and Learning from Student Thinking

Eliciting, responding to, and advancing students’ mathematical thinking all lie at the heart of great teaching (NCTM 2014). We describe a formative assessment approach that teachers can use to learn more about their students’ mathematical thinking and inform their instructional decisions. This assessment approach draws on a widely known set of frameworks for children’s thinking, Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) (Carpenter et al. 2014). It enables teachers to learn from students by giving them time to voice their understandings and confusions. By listening carefully, teachers convey to students that their experience matters.