ABSTRACT
This chapter argues the case for developing the very best in the highest-performing pre-service and beginning mathematics teachers, firstly as an entitlement for the teacher concerned, but also to ensure an entitlement for all the students these outstanding beginning teachers will teach in the future. The role of critical moments as triggers in developing outstanding pre-service mathematics teachers is examined. Using a model of stages of expertise in teaching, and Vygotskian socio-constructivist approaches to learning through the zone of proximal development, the chapter supports practice-based mentors in identifying appropriate challenges and in encouraging a culture of risk-taking, in order to learn, as an expectation of these outstanding beginning mathematics teachers.
