Abstract
While the construct belief is defined in various ways in teacher education research, most scholars agree that beliefs guide teachers’ decision making and classroom behaviors and thus are an important aspect of teacher competence. Pre-service teachers (PSTs) have been typically found to hold a transmission view of mathematics teaching. The influence of teacher preparation on future teachers’ beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning is unclear. This study investigates beliefs in a sample of U.S. elementary PSTs prior to teacher preparation and examines the impact on belief changes of two different mathematics methods courses. Findings reveal that while PSTs hold a transmission view of mathematics teaching prior to teacher preparation, their beliefs change during the program. In addition, PSTs who attended a video-enhanced mathematics methods course structured around systematic and collaborative analysis of practice showed stronger evidence of alignment with the beliefs that children can solve problems in novel ways before being taught how to solve such problems and that teachers should allow children to do as much of the thinking as possible during instruction, than a group of PSTs who attended a more typical version of the course. Implications for teacher preparation and future research are discussed.
Highlights
While the construct belief is defined in various ways in teacher education research, most scholars agree that beliefs guide teachers’ decision making and classroom behaviors and are an important aspect of teacher competence
Their subjective character makes them distinguishable from teacher knowledge. Their guiding function makes them not less important in terms of teachers’ decision making and teaching behavior (Schoenfeld, 2011). This point is stressed by Ambrose et al (2004) who have developed an innovative measure of teacher beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning that we used in the study summarized here
Differences in the incoming belief scores of Pre-service teachers (PSTs) in the LMT and Mathematics Methods Course (MMC) group were analyzed to assure that preconditions were equal in both groups
Summary
While the construct belief is defined in various ways in teacher education research, most scholars agree that beliefs guide teachers’ decision making and classroom behaviors and are an important aspect of teacher competence. This paper summarizes the findings of a study that examined pre-service elementary teachers’ (PSTs) beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning prior to and at the end of teacher preparation. Their guiding function makes them not less important in terms of teachers’ decision making and teaching behavior (Schoenfeld, 2011) This point is stressed by Ambrose et al (2004) who have developed an innovative measure of teacher beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning that we used in the study summarized here. According to a review of research on PSTs’ beliefs (Handal, 2003), PSTs hold a traditional set of beliefs at the beginning of teacher preparation Their beliefs rely on their experiences in school and are not theory and knowledge-oriented. They often overvalue “the role of memorization of rules and procedures in the learning and teaching of school mathematics” (Handal, 2003, p. 50)
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