Mathematics teacher education as a multifaceted field of study

Abstract

Mathematics teacher education, the field of study of this journal, is a multifaceted phenomenon with links and connections to many other fields within and outside mathematics education. Teacher education takes place in many settings, deals with all stages and roles of the profession involving prospective and practicing teachers, the induction phase, and teacher educators, and includes the informal learning processes that take place during the life span of a teacher’s career. It also is concerned with the programs, curricula, and resources used for the practice and the study of teacher education, as well as national and international policies and assessments for teacher education. The three articles in this issue of the journal depict in interesting ways many of such features of this field. The education of prospective teachers is not just a step in the preparation of new teachers but it is also a fundamental element in the constitution of teaching as a profession. In a quasi-experimental study that draws on the perspective of practice-based teacher education, Rossella Santagata and Cathery Yeh analyze the impact of a videoand practice-based teacher education course in prospective elementary school teachers’ capacity to teach following a student-centered approach. In a university course that took place at the same time as field-based activities unfolded, the prospective teachers were presented with images of teaching that value students’ thinking and were encouraged to use reasoning based on evidence to assess the effectiveness of their own teaching. The authors sought to develop such skills in prospective teachers by engaging them in activities such as role playing, planning, teaching, and analyzing teaching. As a result, the prospective teachers improved their ability to analyze the teaching of others and also learned to analyze their own teaching as well as to teach in ways that enable the analysis of student thinking. In addition, they used in their classroom teaching and in the analysis of their own teaching the knowledge that they learned in the university course. The authors conclude that structured opportunities for developing the ability to focus on students’ thinking during teaching and