“Once More About the Quadratic Trinomial…”: On the Formation of Methodological Skills

摘要

This article discusses certain aspects of mathematics teacher education in Russia. To be able successfully to teach through problems, a teacher must know how to select the necessary assignments, to construct mathematical tasks according to methodological principles, and to organize work on these assignments in the classroom; in short, as they say in Russia, the teacher must possess certain well-defined methodological skills. This article analyzes examples of work with pre-service and in-service teachers leading to the formation of such skills. As the author tries to show, substantive and deep mathematical activity can take place in the context of tidying even the most routine school-level topics, such as the quadratic trinomial.