\input zb-basic \input zb-matheduc \iteman{ZMATH 2011e.00257} \itemau{Crespo, Sandra; Oslund, Joy Ann; Parks, Amy Noelle} \itemti{Imagining mathematics teaching practice: prospective teachers generate representations of a class discussion.} \itemso{ZDM 43, No. 1, 119-131 (2011).} \itemab Summary: Prospective teachers work with a variety of representations of mathematics teaching (i.e., narrative cases, transcripts, video clips) in teacher preparation courses. Generally, they are considered the audience, not producers, of those artifacts. In this article, however, we focus on representations produced by prospective teachers when they were asked to generate a hypothetical classroom dialogue for the equality task: ``What goes in the box: 8+4=[ ]+5?'' We discuss the nature and quality of the representations produced by four different cohorts of teacher preparation students-prior to admission, at the beginning, middle, and end of their program. Prospective teachers within and across all cohorts produced an unexpected diversity of representations of class discussions. Of special interest to us were their hybrid representations, those that combined multiple images of mathematics teaching practices. These representations not only provide a lens into prospective teachers' development as mathematics teachers but could also become tools to support novices as they learn more complex forms of mathematics teaching. \itemrv{~} \itemcc{C50 C70 D20 B52} \itemut{mathematics classroom dialogues; representations of teaching; prospective elementary school teachers; classroom discussion} \itemli{doi:10.1007/s11858-010-0296-z} \end