Pre-service Elementary Mathematics Teachers Research Articles

An Engaging Puzzle to Explore Algebraic Generalizations

In this article, we discuss a popular puzzle we have used numerous times with our preservice elementary and secondary mathematics teachers. Students find the puzzle engaging; its primary appeal to us lies in the mathematics behind it.

ADDING APPLES AND ORANGES: INTRODUCING PRESERVICE ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS TO THE CONCEPT OF UNIT

ABSTRACT This article describes an approach for introducing the unit concept in a mathematics content course designed for preservice elementary mathematics teachers. Classroom activities presented in the article emphasize the awareness, flexibility, and importance of the unit concept. Dialogue with selected preservice teachers is included and reveals some interesting suggestions for helping all students understand the concept of unit.

History of Mathematics: Building Relationships for Teaching and Learning

Dewey (1938) suggested curriculum development should consider both the relationship between students' life experiences and interests and the material to be learned, and the relationship among educative experiences as unfolding in meaningful and useful ways. This study explored the influence of a mathematics education curriculum incorporating historical topics on students' meaning-making efforts as they developed both as students of mathematics and as preservice elementary mathematics teachers. The underlying question of this study was: How may a mathematics education curriculum, infused with evolving historical explorations over several semesters, help students make sense of their own mathematics and their future roles as mathematics teachers in elementary schools? The curriculum provided experiences with historical topics in mathematics, organized over three different semesters, in order to explore Dewey's notion that the unfolding of mathematical ideas may occur as historical origins and contexts offer meaningful mathematical connections. Results suggest that, despite the multiple opportunities throughout their teacher preparation program to expand their ideas about mathematical origins and connections, students maintained a predominantly technical interest in and perspective of mathematics learning. The resiliency of their beliefs was considered from the perspective of context of choice (Kymlicka, 1991, 1995), suggesting real-life experiences and historical connections with mathematical origins throughout a teacher preparation program may not sufficiently equip preservice teachers with necessary tools to overcome traditional perspectives of and past experiences with the mathematics curriculum.

Reflective Thinking among Preservice Elementary Mathematics Teachers

Four preservice elementary teachers were studied during a field-based mathematics methods course. The purpose of the study was to investigate the elements of mathematics teaching and learning the preservice teachers found problematic and how they resolved those problems. Data were collected in the form of individual interviews, group discussions, and individual journals. The preservice teachers exhibited concerns about the classroom context, pedagogy of mathematics, children's mathematical thinking, and, to a lesser extent, the mathematics content. The data indicate a relationship between the preservice teachers' locus of authority and the reflective quality of their thinking.

Effects of Mathematics Methods Courses on the Mathematical Attitudes and Content Knowledge of Preservice Teachers

Teachers who have inadequate meaningful mathematical content knowledge and/or poor attitudes toward the subject often exacerbate the problems that students experience in learning mathematics. In the present study, the effects of mathematics methods courses that use manipulatives, technology, and cooperative learning on meaningful mathematical content knowledge and attitude toward mathematics for preservice elementary teachers and preservice secondary mathematics teachers were investigated. Initial differences regarding content knowledge between these groups was also considered. Following the completion of a mathematics methods course, the preservice elementary teachers' attitudes improved significantly and their content knowledge increased significantly. These measures increased, but not significantly, for the preservice secondary mathematics teachers. Initially, the preservice secondary mathematics teachers had more content knowledge than the preservice elementary teachers did. An item analysis of the content test identified areas of particular concern. Suggestions for improving preservice teacher education and questions worthy of further study are provided.

The Mathematical Understandings That Prospective Teachers Bring to Teacher Education

This article focuses on the subject matter knowledge of preservice elementary and secondary mathematics teachers. In order to examine what teacher candidates understand about mathematics as they enter formal teacher education, results from questionnaires and interviews with 252 prospective teachers participating in a large study of teacher education are discussed. The results reveal the mathematical understandings that these elementary and secondary teacher candidates brought with them to teacher education from their precollege and college mathematics experiences, understandings that tended to be rule-bound and thin. Based on these data, the article challenges 3 common assumptions about learning to teach elementary or secondary mathematics: (1) that traditional school mathematics content is not difficult, (2) that precollege education provides teachers with much of what they need to know about mathematics, and (3) that majoring in mathematics ensures subject matter knowledge. These assumptions underlie current teacher education practices as well as proposals to reform the preparation of teachers.