Using Written Teaching Replays to Learn What Early Career Secondary Mathematics Teachers Notice

Noticing is often dependent on time-sensitivity and uses video or live observations. This paper explores loosening the time-sensitivity component and implementing self-narrative and inquiry approaches by having teachers write to explore noticing. This study explores narrative writing of beginning mathematics teachers using a noticing framework as opposed to data from video, discussion, or prompted writing as most noticing studies have implemented. This study analyzed narrative writing, termed written teaching replays, by early career secondary mathematics teachers to understand what these teachers attended to when writing about a classroom situation. Written teaching replay analysis results were similar to other mathematics noticing research studies, including earlier teacher development work on beginning teachers’ focus on self. Differing from this literature, the majority of teaching replays did not focus on managing student behavior. The narrative inquiry work also revealed teachers connecting the professional development experience to their classrooms and vice versa. The paper suggests noticing may not need to be captured in the moment and highlights potential applications for teacher education and professional development as well as implications for research.