1 - Preparing Middle Grades Mathematics Teachers at Georgia College & State University

Summary

The Georgia College & State University (GCSU) middle grades mathematics faculty believe that teaching mathematics is a complex task and it is not sufficient for effective teaching for teachers only to know their content. Instead, we believe that teachers need a specialized knowledge of mathematics that includes a profound understanding of the content they teach and knowledge of how students learn mathematics [25]. In addition, we believe they need to be aware of the mathematical content in the previous grades and the grades to follow and how they are interwoven. We refer to this specialized content knowledge as pedagogical content knowledge [23]. We believe pedagogical content knowledge is necessary for teachers to make productive use of their content knowledge within the classroom. In all mathematics education courses at GCSU the topics, tasks, activities, technology, and manipulatives are chosen to enhance both content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.

Georgia College & State University

Georgia College is a small liberal arts college with about 6000 students located in a small town in central Georgia. It was founded in 1889 and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate, baccalaureate, masters, and specialist degrees. The student population at GCSU is among the best in the state academically with students ranking third highest in average SAT scores.