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W ho Teaches Mathematics Content Courses for Preservice Elementary Teachers? Results of a Nationwide Survey. Joanna O. Masingila Dana Olanoff Dennis Kwaka. Background.
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Who Teaches Mathematics Content Courses for Preservice Elementary Teachers? Results of a Nationwide Survey Joanna O. Masingila Dana Olanoff Dennis Kwaka
Background • Grew out of 2010 AMTE symposium session about preparing instructors to teach mathematics content courses for preservice elementary teachers
Background • Through discussion, the group concluded not much is known about who teaches these courses and the academic and teaching backgrounds of the instructors.
Rationale • There is evidence that many preservice elementary teachers do not receive adequate experiences from their TE programs in order to develop deep, conceptual knowledge of the mathematics they will teach (Ball & Bass, 2000; Greenberg & Walsh, 2008).
Rationale • Teachers of mathematics content courses for preservice elementary teachers play an important role in helping prospective teachers acquire the knowledge they need for teaching.
Methods • Building on the interest expressed in the symposium session for more comprehensive information, we decided to conduct a survey of all higher education institutions in the United States.
Methods • Our research aim was to answer the question, “Who teaches mathematics content courses for preservice elementary teachers at colleges and universities in the United States, and what are these instructors’ academic and teaching backgrounds?”
Methods • To extend information gathered in the CBMS 2005 survey (Lutzer, Rodi, Kirkman & Maxwell, 2007), we constructed questions to obtain more detail about the courses, instructors and training and support for instructors.
Methods • We compiled a comprehensive list of all higher education institutions in the U.S. using three different websites. • We looked for e-mail addresses of the department of mathematics chairpersons of each of the institutions.
Methods • List of 1,985 institutions; for 47 of these we were unable to obtain an e-mail address • Sent an e-mail message with a link to our survey on SurveyMonkey™ to 1,938 institutions; some bounced back; unable to obtain valid e-mail address for 12 institutions
Methods • Thus, we had 1,926 institutions for which we were able to successfully send our e-mail message in late April and early May of 2010. • We sent a follow-up message approximately two weeks afterwards.
Methods • We received 825 responses, for a response rate of 42.8%.
Findings • Mathematics Courses • Instructors and Their Backgrounds • Training and/or Support for Instructors
Mathematics Courses • Asked questions on (a) which department offers these courses, (b) how many of these courses are offered and how many are required, (c) what content is covered in these courses, (d) in what format the courses are typically taught, (e) how many sections of these courses are taught in each academic year, (f) approximately how many students are in each section of these courses, and (g) in what year students typically take these courses
Mathematics Courses • Many institutions reported teaching one to three sections of courses, with other institutions reporting up to 55 sections per semester • Most institutions reported an average of 25-30 students per section • 75.5% of respondents indicated students typically take courses in second year of study, with 40% reporting first year, and 37.5 reporting third year (could check all that apply)
Mathematics Courses • The majority of these institutions are not meeting the recommendations of Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences (2001), National Council on Teacher Quality (2008), and the NCTM (2005) for preservice elementary teachers to take at least 9 credits of mathematics content designed specifically for them.
Mathematics Courses • Preservice elementary teachers in mathematics content courses designed specifically for them show greater achievement than those in general mathematics courses (Matthews & Seaman, 2007) • Preservice elementary teachers’ achievement is higher when they are taught in ways that actively engage them with the mathematics content (McCrory et al., 2009).
Instructors and Their Backgrounds • Asked questions on (a) if there is a course supervisor for the mathematics content courses for preservice elementary teachers, (b) the academic and teaching background of the supervisor, (c) whether the supervisor teaches one or more of these courses, (d) who are the other instructors of these courses, and (e) the academic and teaching background of the other instructors
Instructors and Their Backgrounds • Elementary mathematics is more complex than it may appear (Ma, 1999). • Unless instructors have been put in situations where they are teaching elementary mathematics, the instructors have likely not thought about this mathematics since they were elementary students themselves, and that was a time when they were not thinking about these ideas in a deep way.
Instructors and Their Backgrounds • “Too often, the person assigned to teach mathematics to elementary teacher candidates is not professionally equipped to do so” (Greenberg & Walsh, 2008, p. 46). • “Mathematicians who have not turned serious attention to mathematics education often fail to appreciate the cognitive and epistemological subtleties of elementary mathematics instruction” (Bass, 2005, p. 419).
Training and/or Support for Instructors • Asked questions concerning (a) if there is training and/or support for instructors for mathematics content courses for preservice elementary teachers, and (b) if so, what the training and/or support consist of
Training and/or Support for Instructors • Our results indicate a lack of professional development/support opportunities for instructors of these courses. • “Trained as mathematicians or as teachers themselves, most teacher developers lack knowledge about teachers as learners” (Sztajn, Ball & McMahon, 2006, p. 151).
Training and/or Support for Instructors • Instructors need opportunities to talk with and collaborate with others about how to teach these courses. • “Instructors need to experiment with new tasks, tools, and modes of classroom interaction and share and model new instructional strategies. This necessitates collegial interaction and support as well as participation in professional development opportunities” (NCTM, 1991, p. 128).
Training and/or Support for Instructors • “Not only are prospective K-12 teachers faced with the teaching mathematics in ways they have never experienced in the reform climate, but mathematics educators are faced with helping teachers to teach in a way that they themselves have probably neither experienced nor used much. Often the mathematics faculty members who teach content courses for elementary school teachers are isolated in their departments, without colleagues to consult about new trends and materials” (MSEB, 1996, p. 8).
Conclusions • Our findings corroborate findings from other studies (e.g., Greenberg & Walsh, 2008) that show wide variation in the mathematical experiences of preservice elementary teachers across the United States.
Conclusions • Our survey results, combined with other research on preservice elementary teachers’ achievement, may help the mathematics education community develop standards for the teacher educators who teach mathematics content courses for this population.
Contact Information • Joanna O. Masingila, jomasing@syr.edu • Dana Olanoff, deolanof@syr.edu • Dennis Kwaka, dkkwaka@syr.edu
