Elementary Mathematics Methods Courses and Beginning Mathematics Teachers Readiness to Teach Number and Operations
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2019
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Elementary student achievement in the area of mathematics is a subject of educational, political, and economic studies and reform movements. Research showed overall low achievement in mathematics. As teachers play a crucial role in student achievement (Hattie, 2009), it is important that educational research include the study of teacher preparation. Research shared in this study indicated mathematics methods courses can positively affect preservice teachers’ mathematical attitudes and learning of effective instructional practices in mathematics. Despite these positive influences, many first-year elementary teachers do not translate the philosophies, beliefs, conceptual knowledge, and pedagogies learned in their elementary teacher preparation program courses into their first-year teaching practices.
This study investigated the extent to which eight teachers felt their attitudes and confidence, mathematical content knowledge, and mathematical pedagogical knowledge were influenced by their mathematics methods coursework. The study also investigated whether these beginning teachers’ perceptions of readiness changed over the course of their first semester of teaching, and includes self-reported details about why and how the perceptions changed.
This study provided an opportunity to understand the experiences of first-year elementary mathematics teachers. Findings suggested that teachers perceived themselves to be positively affected by their methods coursework in the area of attitude, and all teachers were encouraged to use constructivist pedagogies. The majority of teachers felt their content knowledge was not greatly affected by their methods courses. While the teachers indicated examples where they had implemented some learning from their methods courses, findings also seemed to indicate examples of instances where teachers’ choices had been influenced more by their school’s or district’s context than their preparation program. Recommendations for future mathematics methods courses, based on these teachers’ feedback and included research, are discussed.
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Teacher education, Mathematics education
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157 pages
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