Research Trends in Mathematics Teacher Education by Lo, Jane-Jane; Leatham, Keith R.; Van Zoest, Laura R.;

Long description:

Research on the preparation and continued development of mathematics teachers is becoming an increasingly important subset of mathematics education research. Such research explores the attributes, knowledge, skills and beliefs of mathematics teachers as well as methods for assessing and developing these critical aspects of teachers and influences on teaching.

Research Trends in Mathematics Teacher Education focuses on three major themes in current mathematics teacher education research: mathematical knowledge for teaching, teacher beliefs and identities, and tools and techniques to support teacher learning. Through careful reports of individual research studies and cross-study syntheses of the state of research in these areas, the book provides insights into teachers’ learning processes and how these processes can be harnessed to develop effective teachers. Chapters investigate bedrock skills needed for working with primary and secondary learners (writing relevant problems, planning lessons, being attentive to student learning) and illustrate how knowledge can be accessed, assessed, and nurtured over the course of a teaching career. Commentaries provide context for current research while identifying areas deserving future study. Included among the topics:

• Teachers’ curricular knowledge
• Teachers’ personal and classroom mathematics
• Teachers’ learning journeys toward reasoning and sense-making
• Teachers’ transitions in noticing
• Teachers’ uses of a learning trajectory as a tool for mathematics lesson planning

A unique and timely set of perspectives on the professional development of mathematics teachers at all stages of their careers, Research Trends in Mathematics Teacher Education brings clarity and practical advice to researchers as well as practitioners in this increasingly critical arena.

Table of Contents:

Foreword.- Preface.- Contributors.- I. Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching in Teacher Education.- Understanding Preservice Teachers' Curricular Knowledge.- Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching and its Specificity to High School Geometry Instruction.- Using Coordination Classes to Analyze Preservice Middle-Grades Teachers' Difficulties in Determining Direct Proportion Relationships.- A Processes Lens on a Beginning Teacher's Personal and Classroom Mathematics.- Commentary on Section 1: Mounting Progress on Understanding Mathematics Teacher Content Knowledge.- II. Beliefs and Identities in Mathematics Teacher Education.- Photo-Elicitation/Photovoice Interviews to Study Mathematics Teacher Identity.- Teachers, Attributions, and Students' Mathematical Work.- Teacher Identity and Tensions of Teaching Mathematics in High-Stakes Accountability Contexts.- Teachers' Learning Journeys Toward Reasoning and Sense Making.- Commentary on Section 2: Attending to Teachers in Mathematics Teacher Education Research.- III. Tools and Techniques for Supporting Teacher Learning.- Preservice Elementary Mathematics Teachers' Emerging Ability to Write Problems to Build on Children's Mathematics.- Examining the Relationship Between Preservice Elementary Teachers' Attitutudes Toward Mathematics and Professional Noticing Capacities.- Transitions in Prospective Mathematics Teacher Noticing.- Teachers' Uses of a Learning Trajectory as a Tool for Mathematics Lesson Planning.- Commentary on Section 3: Research on Teachers' Focusing on Children's Thinking: Teacher Noticing and Learning Trajectories.- Overall Commentary: Understanding and Changing Teachers.- Author Index.- Subject Index.