Abstract:

Student's understanding is a desired outcome of teaching, yet many teachers are frustrated with their students' outcomes. The "teaching for understanding" approach (Wiske, 1998) presents a way to focus teachers' attention in their students' understanding while planning their instructions together with attention to the students' performances.

The future teachers (FT) who participated in this research study in a pre-service program for engineering and mathematics teachers. They learn "teaching for understanding" as a main approach in the introductory teaching methods course. Focusing their attention at understanding as a performance early in their training might have an impact on their thinking and their actions during their studies and as new teachers after graduation.
This research employed a grounded theory approach.

The research questions are:
a. what are the pre-service teachers views of understanding?
b. What kinds of understanding aims and performances are presented in their work? and
c. How the "teaching for understanding" approach is manifested during their practicum?

The study involved 88 pre-service teachers who studied in four sequential courses during 2013-2015. Data sources include class assignments, on-line discussions, course assignments and interviews.

This presentation will be focused on research questions a, b. Preliminary findings reveal that the future teachers' views of understanding vary. Some of the options are: understanding as thinking, understanding as knowledge, and understanding as feeling. Preliminary analysis of their understanding aims and performances suggests several kinds of understanding. For example: representation (in graphs, models), connections (between components or terms), and understanding as position. Engineering and mathematics background will be discussed in relation to the findings.

Keywords:

Pre-service, understanding.