What didactic actions to choose when facing students’ errors in mathematics problems?

Abstract

The study describes the didactic actions proposed by twelve mathematics teachers and twelve pre-service
teachers when facing errors on problems of multiplicative structure (product of measures and isomorphism of
measures) committed by elementary school students. It also examines if there is a relationship between the type
of didactic action proposed and the type of error identified. Each participant gave a semi-structured interview
and the data was audio recorded. Results show that teachers and pre-service teachers proposed a variety of
didactic actions; however, there are differences between both groups, which may vary quantitatively according
to the type of the problem. In addition, the few consistent signs of a relationship between the type of didactic
actions and the type of the identified errors may vary, not exclusively for the teachers’ training and their
experience, but also for some interaction between that variable with the type of problem. Implications for
teachers’ professional training are discussed.