Biography
Blake E. Peterson is a Professor of Mathematics Education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. His research has two related foci: 1) How do teachers recognize and productively use student mathematical thinking during instruction; 2) How do preservice teachers learn to teach mathematics. The first focus stemmed his observation of preservice teachers and their struggle to recognize and use “teachable moments.” He and his colleagues have defined “teachable moments” in a mathematics classroom as MOSTs (Mathematical Opportunities in Student Thinking). They are currently studying how to help teachers (inservice and preservice) recognize MOSTs and productively use them during whole-class discussions. They have defined this productive use as Building on MOSTs. Dr. Peterson’s second research focus is more long-term work where he has compared attributes of mathematics teacher education in Japan and the United States. This led to some of the structural elements of student teaching done at Brigham Young University mirroring student teaching in Japan.
Research Interests
Peterson’s research centers on how preservice teachers learn to teach mathematics. More specifically, he has studied student teaching in the United States and in Japan and how the structure of that experience influences the opportunity for preservice teachers to learn. Intertwined with his research in Japan is an effort to understand how to teach preservice mathematics teachers to recognize and effectively build on student mathematical thinking during instruction. Much of this recent work on the productive use of student mathematical thinking has been done as part of the MOST (Mathematical Opportunities in Student Thinking) project.Memberships
- Psychology of Mathematics Education - North American Chapter (2005 - Present)
- Utah Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (UATME) (2001 - Present)
- Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (1999 - Present)
- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) (1989 - Present)