3 - Connecting Middle School Mathematics with College Mathematics: A Core of Mathematics Courses for Middle Grade Mathematics Teachers

Summary

Introduction

A common response when questioning in-service mathematics teachers about their mathematical preparation for teaching is that their college mathematics courses did not adequately prepare them to teach school mathematics because the college courses often failed to connect the mathematics they were learning with the school mathematics that they would be teaching. Though the courses were rich in mathematical ideas, their connections to important concepts in school mathematics were not always explicitly detailed. Several factors contributed to this deficiency, but the most prominent one was the lack of high quality textbooks that identify and explain the critical connections. Without such materials, it is challenging and time consuming for mathematicians, who primarily teach content courses for pre-service teachers and who are typically unfamiliar with school mathematics curricula, to make these critical connections.

To help address the need for specialized courses and materials for pre-service mathematics teachers, the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, and the Mathematical Association of America (with funding provided by the United States Department of Education), developed the Mathematical Education of Teachers Report(MET), [2]. It gives a framework for mathematics content courses for prospective teachers that is built on the premise that “The mathematical knowledge needed for teaching is quite different from that required by college students pursuing other mathematics-related professions. Prospective teachers need a solid understanding of mathematics so that they can teach it as a coherent, reasoned activity and communicate its elegance and power.”