Primary mathematics teachers’ question-chain reasoning: a cognitive–ecological developmental model for teacher education

In primary mathematics lessons, teachers guide students’ thinking not only through tasks but also through sequences of questions. Yet we know little about how teachers at different career stages design and adapt these “question-chains” in everyday classrooms. This qualitative study examines 15 novice, experienced, and expert primary mathematics teachers in Chengdu, China, using semi-structured interviews and reflexive thematic analysis. We developed a five-dimension developmental model that describes how teachers’ question-chain reasoning becomes more adaptive over time. Novice teachers tend to follow textbook sequences to maintain pacing and reach correct answers. With experience, teachers increasingly revise and branch question-chains to elicit explanations, connect representations, and support students’ generalisation, while managing time, curriculum, and assessment pressures. School-based teaching – research groups and lesson study can either reinforce routine, performance-oriented practices or support collaborative experimentation with questioning. The model provides guidance for designing pre-service, induction, and in-service programmes that strengthen reasoning-rich questioning in primary mathematics.