Developing Preservice Teachers' Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: Making Explicit Design Considerations for a Content Course

Abstract

Research has highlighted the nature of the mathematical work in teachers' practice. However, preservice mathematics coursework often too narrowly focuses on the development of common content knowledge and not enough on the development of specialized content knowledge, a kind of mathematical knowledge that is specific to the work of teaching mathematics. We offer three design principles that have informed a mathematics content course for elementary preservice teachers, and we provide learning outcomes data that suggest the overall content course experience supports specialized content knowledge development. We provide relevant examples from our own work to illustrate how we have applied these design principles in our local context. Our aim is to begin a dialogue about principled design considerations for content courses for preservice teachers.