• School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.19-41
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• 2017

The purpose of this article was to a) identify how preservice teachers conceive feedbacks and subsequent classroom discourses, and b) compare them with those in reform-oriented mathematics classroom video for mathematics teachers' professional development about classroom discourse. This article analyzes feedback patterns and subsequent classroom discourses in preservice teachers' imaginary classroom scripts (lesson plays) and compares them with those in the reform-oriented classroom video dealing with the same teaching situation. Most of the preservice teachers' feedbacks focused the evaluation of students' responses and transmission of meaning (univocal function), whereas the teacher's feedback in the reform-oriented classroom allowed the whole class to validate or challenge the answers, thereby facilitating students' generation of meaning (dialogic function). The comparison analysis between the univocal discourse in a preservice teacher's lesson play and the dialogical discourse in the reform-oriented classroom video shows that teacher feedback serves as an important indicator for the main function of classroom discourse and the levels of students' cognitive participation, and also as a variable that determines and changes them. This case study suggests that to improve the quality of classroom discourse, preservice and in-service teachers need experience of perceiving the variety of feedback patterns available in specific teaching contexts and exploring ways to balance the univocal and dialogical functioning in their feedback move during the teacher training courses.