Rationale: Math methods
Prospective teachers address issues such as analyzing data from student work, planning lessons (developing, differentiating, motivating) and devising ways to assess student learning in general methods courses. Beyond these universal elements of good teaching, mathematics methods coursework focuses on how to provide the child—whose maturity of mathematical thinking develops over time—the capacity for number sense, facility with complicated algorithms, geometric intuition and an understanding of how to translate quantities and relationships into symbols. None of these can be developed in a general methods class. Research, albeit limited, indicates the value of mathematics methods courses,1 and mathematics-specific pedagogy is part of the preparation of mathematics teachers around the world, including in countries such as Singapore, Korea and Taiwan, whose students out-perform our own.2
2Knowing Mathematics: What We Can Learn from Teachers (2006) p. 3. Communications with Mdm Low Khah Gek, Deputy Director, Sciences, Curriculum Planning and Development Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore.
