Who Teaches Mathematics Content Courses for Preservice Elementary Teachers? Results

of a Nationwide SurveyJoanna O. Masingila

Dana OlanoffDennis 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%.

Methods

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

Mathematics Courses

Mathematics Courses

Mathematics Courses

Mathematics Courses

Mathematics 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

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

Instructors and Their Backgrounds

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

Training and/or Support for Instructors

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90

20406080

100120140160

141

70

28 32

123 9 3 3

Response by Category

Category

Res

pons

e

1. Informal Training and/or Support 2. Attending Workshops, Conferences3. Beginning of Semester Meeting or Once a Year Training4. Regularly Scheduled, Ongoing Meetings/Discussions5. Co-teaches or Observes Course Before Teaching on Own6. Other7. Taking a course8. Visiting elementary schools9. No support or training needed

LEGEND:

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