• The Mathematical Education
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.271-294
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of digital simulation by which pre-service teachers (PSTs) can approximate the core teaching practice of eliciting student thinking. This study examined PSTs' questions to elicit student thinking, their use of "pause" session and peer feedback, and their reflections on doing a digital simulation. We analyzed a two-hour digital simulation session with 13 PSTs who enrolled in the elementary mathematics methods course. The results showed that PSTs shifted their general questions to more content-specific questions throughout the simulation and made a quick transition to comparing students' strategies. The number of lead PST-initiated "pause" ranged one to four times for various reasons. Their peer-coaches did not voluntarily "pause" the simulation session but actively shared what they noticed from the student work samples and suggested the next teaching moves. Without utilizing the pause session, the dramatic improvement of questioning was not observed. Even though the PSTs felt overwhelmed with interacting with the student-avatars in real-time, they highlighted the benefits of simulations, appreciated the opportunity to learn the core teaching practice, and viewed this digital simulation as "real" and "authentic" experience. The findings of this study provide implications for re-designing a practice-based teacher education program.