The Subject
The paper reports a case study of a pre-service secondary school mathematics teacher, named Chan. He is one of the subjects of a bigger study involving eight pre-service secondary school mathematics teachers from a local university enrolled in a 4-year Bachelor of Science with Education (B.Sc.Ed.) program who majored or minored in mathematics. Each subject will be given a pseudonym in order to protect the anonymity of all interviewees.
Data Collection
Clinical interview was employed in data collection. The interview was conducted in the Mathematics Teaching Room. The physical settings were arranged with a table, two chairs and a digital video camera. The interview was recorded through the digital video camera positioned in front of the table. The camera focused on the subject, the working area, and the researcher. Blank papers, grid papers, pencil, ruler, string, compasses, and calculator were accessible to the subject throughout the interview.
Materials collected for data analysis consisted of videotape session of clinical interview, subject's notes and drawings, and researcher's notes during the interview. The videotape session was transcribed into written form and the transcriptions served as raw data for this study. The transcription included also the verbal interaction between researcher and subject.