Regarding mathematics, students are struggling.
The recent national assessment stressed this by revealing that 24% of fourth year students are still below Mathematics skills, also highlights an ever inequality of mathematical performance across the country. Other evaluations – such as the international PISA international examination of critical thinking – also said a decrease Mathematical capacities.
The list of explanations ranges from a mathematical culture to the difficulties of schools in hiring and keeping talented teachers, a job that seems to have become more difficult postpandmic. But certainly, it seems that teachers are not set up to succeed.
Now, a new report suggests that teacher preparation programs underestimate the teaching of mathematics at primary school. According to a recent study by elementary school teachers, only primary teachers to learn the mathematical content they teach, according to a recent study by the National Council on the quality of teachers, which has examined more than 1,100 teacher preparation programs across the country.
Inadequate education undermines the students' attempts to learn mathematics even before entering the classroom, explains Heather Peske, president of the National Council on the quality of teachers.
This has consequences.
The first skills in mathematics are associated with larger literacy And higher gains. But many teachers from elementary schools are uncomfortable with mathematics – in a way that can transmit to students. This is particularly unhappy because students of this level can delay in mathematics, develop an aversion and have trouble catching up.
But some programs prepare teachers very well, and following their advance can help improve the performance of students, according to Peske.
Others say it's more complicated.
Schools having difficulty keeping teachers, many adults in class are on emergency references, which means that they have not followed these training programs. In addition, some think it may be time for a greater overhaul of how programs approach training.
Sub-prepare, exceeded
Too many students have been late on mathematical skills, and teacher preparation programs can help change this, says Peske.
PESKE organization found that most programs for the preparation of primary teachers Do not give enough time to potential teachers To develop knowledge in mathematical content. More specifically, the undergraduate programs often fail to spend enough time to ensure that teachers include concepts such as numbers and algebraic thoughts and thoughts, which are fields of mathematical content for the level of primary school, according to the report. But surprisingly, the most notable failure was the higher education programs, which made it possible for the first cycle, even if they prepare potential teachers for the same job. The report gave “F” to 84% of higher education programs preparing elementary school teachers for mathematics. Students of the higher school received on average less than a course credit, or about 14 hours of teaching time, on fundamental mathematical content.
Primary school teachers must be generalist and cannot spend all their time studying mathematics. They are not necessarily attracted to the profession by a love for mathematics, and they do not always come with a solid base in the subject, according to experts.
Eleuring that they get enough skill in mathematics and teaching capacity before entering class is a thorny problem.
Experts wonder if the improvement of preparation programs is only a partial solution, because some teachers may not cross them at all. Schools that endeavor to hire and keep teachers based on alternative certifications of teachers and emergency teaching references, which bring teachers to classrooms but have fewer requirements.
But even for teachers who get references, it's complicated.
Teachers of elementary schools must learn a certain number of matters, and the preparation programs have only about 120 hours of credit to transmit this knowledge, explains Cody Patterson, assistant professor of mathematics at Texas State University and member of the writing team that works on the mathematical education of teachers III, an upcoming report on the professional needs of professional development for K-12 mathematics teachers.
Potential teachers can come with a narrow view of what it means to be good in mathematics, says Patterson.
The school must overcome people's self-images, convince them that they continue to benefit from learning mathematics throughout their careers and the expansion of their understanding of what it means to learn and do mathematics, he says. It is not only the grinding of mathematical facts or the creation of algorithms using pencil and paper. He also searches for models or links with other mathematics and world concepts outside the class. Show that teachers can increase their trust and interest in mathematics and therefore help teaching.
This is a mission that educational coaches also resumed once a teacher is in class. In primary school in particular, teachers often wear mathematical fears taken up during their own education. This is why some educational coaches have taken on the label “mathematical therapist. “For them, the work consists in breaking the cycle of mathematical anxiety which passes from the teacher to the student.
Who is afraid of big and bad math?
In the end, the report of the National Council on the quality of teachers recommends that programs devote 150 hours of teaching to mathematical content and pedagogy. Programs that cannot add that time should require mathematical content tests, the report said. The objective is to give teachers a more in -depth understanding of the content and more practice of teaching it.
Not everyone believes that it is enough.
It's a step in the right direction, explains Yasemin Copur-Gncuturk, an associate professor of education at the University of Southern California. But it fears that the separation of mathematical content and mathematical pedagogy will be disconnected from the latest research.
The addition of lessons that plunge into mathematical content is one thing, but teachers often find it difficult to discover how to really teach this content in a way that will connect with the students, supports Copur-Genturk. Knowing something for yourself is not the same as knowing how to transfer this knowledge to students, which is more complex, she says.
The report notes that – although the programs can mix teaching with courses on mathematical content – it is common that the most efficient programs have three courses focused on mathematical content and one on pedagogy. But Copur-Genturk doubts that one dedicated pedagogy class is enough to provide teachers for the realities of the class.
Effective mathematical teaching is to understand the ways that students generally fight with content, as well as educational tools that allow students to overcome these struggles. This will change with the content, which means that what he looks like to successfully teach algebraic thinking, for example, is different from numbers and operations. Thus, for teachers' preparation programs to separate mathematical content from mathematical pedagogy is a problem, known as Copur-Gncuturk.
Patterson, from the Texas State University, should be the mixture of pedagogy and content is precious. There is an increasing consensus on the fact that there should not be a separate place where teachers learn to do the calculation and, later, another place where they learn to teach it, he says.
Patterson also believes that the mixture of courses that show teachers how to make lessons on mathematics with the content of the material could also help another problem. When teachers have professional development in mathematics, they do not always transport what they learn in class. Teachers can have pleasant experiences to learn mathematics, and experiences can even strengthen their confidence, but we cannot know how knowledge transfers in the hectic class, where mathematics is only one of the four or five subjects they teach one day given, he adds.
The drop in mathematics skills is a national problem, observes Copur-Gncutturk.
“There is certainly mathematical anxiety and avoidance with primary school teachers, but we cannot blame them,” she said, adding that the education system is bad to show how mathematical ideas are connected or how mathematics are connected to the real world.
Instead, it is an endless and esoteric exercise where students simply connect numbers to equations without offering students to understand what they mean or why they are useful, she says.
If more learning time of mathematics instructions were associated with better working conditions for teachers and higher wages, says Copur -Genturk, this would create incentives for teachers to learn more mathematics and deepen their understanding – so that we can break this cycle.
