Mathematics Education, English Technological Universities and Variety of Entry into the Teaching Profession

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to raise the issue of genuine variety of entry into the teaching profession in Australia. The author's interest in mathematics and technological institutions has been used to focus the discussion on specific features, but his experience as a member of the Course Assessment Committee of the NSW Board of Teacher Education has made him aware of wider implications beyond the features peculiar to mathematics. Mathematics education itself is a term which can include the teaching of mathematics, studies about the learning of mathematics, and the preparation of mathematics teachers. The various aspects of mathematics education are interwoven, and whether technological universities have anything distinctive to offer depends to what extent they have taken seriously their role of being "equal but different" in terms of course content and structure, and of course in so far as that political phrase has any educational meaning.