Students struggle with mathematics.
Recent national assessments highlighted it by revealing it 24% of fourth graders are still running below basic Mathematics skills also highlight the ever-growing inequality in mathematics performance across the country. Other evaluations, such as the international PISA exam that focuses on critical thinking, also show a decline in mathematical ability.
The list of explanations ranges from a mathematical avoidance culture to the difficulty of maintaining school employment and talented teachers. This is a job that appears to be a post-pandemic. But certainly, teachers aren’t set up for success.
Now, the new report suggests that teacher preparation programs do not emphasize mathematics instruction at the primary school level. A recent study by the National Teacher Quality Council, which reviewed over 1,100 teacher preparation programs across the country, gives elementary school teachers plenty of time to learn mathematics content they teach.
Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, says inadequate instruction undermines students’ attempts to learn mathematics before entering the classroom.
That has consequences.
Early mathematical skills are associated Higher literacy and Higher revenue. However, many elementary school teachers are uncomfortable with mathematics – in a way that can be communicated to students. That’s especially disappointing as students at that level can fall behind in math, become disgusted and have trouble catching up.
However, some programs prepare teachers very well, and following their leads can help improve student performance, according to Pesuke.
Others say it’s more complicated.
Many adults in the classroom have earned emergency qualifications at schools that struggle to maintain their teachers. That means you have not experienced any of these training programs. Additionally, some view how the program approaches training as a time for greater improvement.
I was underprepared and overwhelmed
Many students are lagging behind their mathematics skills, and teacher preparation programs can help them change that, Pesuke says.
Peske’s organization has discovered preparation programs for most elementary school teachers Don’t give potential teachers enough time To develop knowledge of mathematical content. Specifically, undergraduate programs often fail to devote sufficient time to make teachers understand concepts such as numerical and operational and algebraic thinking, which are the key mathematical content areas of mathematics, which are elementary-level important mathematical content areas. But surprisingly, the most notable failure was the graduate program. The graduate programme has been much worse than its undergraduate counterparts, despite preparing future teachers for the same job. The report was given to “F” to 84% of graduate programs that prepare elementary school teachers for mathematics. Graduate student teachers received an average of one course credit or approximately 14 hours of instructional time in basic mathematics content.
Elementary school teachers must be generalists and cannot spend all their time studying mathematics. They are not necessarily drawn to the profession by their love of mathematics, and they do not always have a strong foundation for their subject, experts say.
Gaining sufficient mathematics proficiency and teaching ability before entering the classroom is a thorny problem.
Experts question whether improving the preparation program is just a partial solution. This is because some teachers may not have passed at all. Schools that are nervous to hire and retain teachers rely on alternative teacher accreditation and emergency education qualifications, allowing teachers to enter classrooms faster, but with fewer requirements.
But it’s complicated for teachers who get their credentials too.
Elementary school teachers need to learn many subjects, and the prep program only has about 120 semester credit hours to pass on that knowledge, says Cody Patterson, an assistant professor of mathematics at Texas State University and a member of the writing team working on mathematics education on upcoming reports on professional development needs for K-2 mathematics teachers.
Potential teachers can have a narrow view of what mathematics means to be good, says Patterson.
Schools must convince people to overcome their self-image and continue to benefit from learning mathematics throughout their careers, and understand the meaning of learning and doing mathematics, he says. It’s not just about crushing mathematical facts or running algorithms using pencils and paper. They are also looking for other mathematical concepts and patterns and connections to the world outside the classroom. Showing it to a teacher can increase confidence and interest in mathematics and thus help with teaching.
This is a mission that the coaching coach took up when the teacher is in the classroom. In elementary schools, teachers often have the fear of mathematics picked up during their education. That’s why some education coaches have taken on the label “Mathematics Therapist.” For them, the job is to break the cycle of mathematics anxiety that ranges from teacher to student.
Who is afraid of big and bad mathematics?
Ultimately, the National Teacher Quality Report recommends a program that devotes 150 educational hours to mathematics content and pedagogy. Programs that can’t add that time should require a mathematics content test, the report says. The goal is to give teachers a deeper understanding of the content and practice teaching them.
Not everyone thinks that that is enough.
This is a step in the right direction, says Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, an associate professor of education at the University of Southern California. However, she worries that separating mathematics content from mathematics pedagogy is not violated from the latest research.
Adding course time to dig into mathematics content is one thing, but teachers often struggle to identify how to actually teach that content in a way that connects with students, Copur-Gencturk argues. Knowing something for yourself is not the same as knowing how to transfer that knowledge to a student. It’s more complicated, she says.
The report notes that while programs can blend classes and instructions on mathematics content, it is common for top performance programs to have three courses focused on mathematics content and pedagogy. However, Copur-Gencturk doubts that a single dedicated pedagogy class is sufficient to equip teachers to fit the classroom reality.
Effective mathematics education is about understanding how students struggle with normal content and teaching tools that will help them overcome these struggles. It changes with the content. In other words, teaching algebraic thinking well means that it is different from numbers and manipulation, for example. Therefore, it is a problem for teacher preparation programs to separate mathematical content from mathematical pedagogy, Copur-Gencturk says.
Patterson of Texas State agrees that mixing pedagogy with content work is valuable. There is an increasing consensus that there should be no other place for teachers to learn to do mathematics.
Patterson also believes that fusion of courses showing teachers how to create lessons on mathematics with content from themes would also help with other issues. When teachers develop their mathematics professional skills, they don’t always bring what they have learned back to the classroom. Teachers may have fun learning mathematics, and while experiences can even boost confidence, it may be unclear how knowledge will return to busy classrooms.
Decreasing mathematics skills is a national problem, Copur-Gencturk observes.
“Primary school teachers definitely have mathematics anxiety and avoidance, but we can’t blame them,” she says.
Instead, it’s an infinite and esoteric exercise where students simply insert numbers into the equation without providing students with the opportunity to understand what they mean or why they are useful, she says.
According to Copur-Gencturk, when mathematics instruction is combined with more working conditions and better working conditions, it creates an incentive for teachers to learn more about mathematics and improve their understanding.
