The relationship of teachers' mathematics preparation and degree level to essential learning skills

• Main Author: Balaban, Gerald M.
• Other Authors: Strowbridge, Ed
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Mathematics > Study and teaching; Mathematics teachers > Training of; Education > Oregon > Aims and objectives
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/37933

Organizations leading education reform of the 1980's have challenged teacher education programs at colleges and universities across the nation to improve the subject matter content preparation of teachers. Past methods of program development and techniques to assess teacher's knowledge competence have been one-sided in their approach. New research studies on expert vs novice teachers show that expert teachers are more efficient in carrying out standard patterns of instruction. This nation's mathematics community has engaged in a revitalization of mathematics curricula. Traditional mathematics is being transformed to become a powerful science. Using the growing body of research, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics have developed standards for improving the teaching and learning of mathematics. Oregon's Department of Education has also established standards to meet the needs of a changing mathematics curricula and the challenges of a changing society. This study identified the specific content knowledge taught in the mathematics curricula within colleges and universities which offer four, five or fifth year teacher education programs. It then compared these findings against teacher identified origins of elementary, middle and high school teachers' mathematics content knowledge relative to the Essential Learning Skills of Oregon. It was found that teachers' content knowledge of the Essential Learning Skills of Oregon was not directly related to their preparation as teachers; at the elementary and high school levels, there was no direct relationship found between teachers' degrees and their teaching assignment; there was no apparent relationship between teachers' knowledge of the Essential Learning Skills of Oregon and graduation from an Oregon college or university; there was no apparent relationship between teachers' lack of knowledge of the Essential Learning Skills of Oregon and graduation from a non-Oregon college or university. === Graduation date: 1990