Maria Teresa Tatto

This book reports on an innovative study into the first five years of mathematics teaching: FIRSTMATH. For the first time, the study has developed a viable methodology to analyze the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of beginning mathematics teachers as well as instruments to explore the contexts where they work. The book provides a step by step account of this exploratory (proof-of-concept) research study, using a comparative and international approach, and introduces readers to the challenges entailed. The FIRSTMATH study promises the development of methods and strategies to make it possible for teacher educators and future teachers to examine (and improve on) their own practices in an important STEM area.

This book reports on an innovative study into the first five years of mathematics teaching: FIRSTMATH. For the first time, the study has developed a viable methodology to analyze the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of beginning mathematics teachers as well as instruments to explore the contexts where they work. The book provides a step by step account of this exploratory (proof-of-concept) research study, using a comparative and international approach, and introduces readers to the challenges entailed. The FIRSTMATH study promises the development of methods and strategies to make it possible for teacher educators and future teachers to examine (and improve on) their own practices in an important STEM area.

Learning to Teach in England and the United States studies the evolution of initial teacher education by considering some of the current approaches in England and the United States. Presenting empirical evidence from these two distinct political and historical contexts, the chapters of this thought-provoking volume illustrate the tensions involved in preparing teachers who are working in ever-changing environments. Grounded in the lived experiences of those directly affected by these shifting policy environments, the book questions if reforms that have introduced accountability regimes and new kinds of partnership with the promise of improving teaching and learning, have contributed to more powerful learning experiences in schools for those entering the profession. The authors consider the relationships between global, national and local policy, and question their potential impact on the future of teacher education and teaching more generally. The research adopts an innovative methodology and sociocultural theoretical framework designed to show greater insights into the ways in which beginning teachers’ learning experiences are shaped by relationships at all of these levels. A key emerging issue is that of the alignment – or not – between the values and dispositions of the individuals and the institutions that are involved. This book will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of teacher education, comparative education, higher education, and education policy and politics.

Learning to Teach in England and the United States studies the evolution of initial teacher education by considering some of the current approaches in England and the United States. Presenting empirical evidence from these two distinct political and historical contexts, the chapters of this thought-provoking volume illustrate the tensions involved in preparing teachers who are working in ever-changing environments. Grounded in the lived experiences of those directly affected by these shifting policy environments, the book questions if reforms that have introduced accountability regimes and new kinds of partnership with the promise of improving teaching and learning, have contributed to more powerful learning experiences in schools for those entering the profession. The authors consider the relationships between global, national and local policy, and question their potential impact on the future of teacher education and teaching more generally. The research adopts an innovative methodology and sociocultural theoretical framework designed to show greater insights into the ways in which beginning teachers’ learning experiences are shaped by relationships at all of these levels. A key emerging issue is that of the alignment – or not – between the values and dispositions of the individuals and the institutions that are involved. This book will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of teacher education, comparative education, higher education, and education policy and politics.

Based on a major international teacher education research project—the Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century Study (MT21)—this book investigates the pre-service preparation of middle school mathematics teachers in the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Bulgaria, and Mexico. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and the participating countries. William Schmidt (co-author of the influential TIMSS study on student test results in science and math) and Maria Teresa Tatto (director of the Teacher Education and Development study or TEDS-M) led a collaborative team of international researchers in this study. Using the results of more than 2,500 surveys, the authors examine the differential contribution of the six countries’ teacher-education models to the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of their future mathematics teachers. Case studies and detailed analysis of the teacher education curriculum across the participating countries provide rich contextual information to explain the survey findings. This study is the first to examine the resource allocation and economic support in teacher education vis-à-vis other mathematics-related professions, and shows that differential investment patterns are consistent with the level of teaching knowledge found in each country’s new teachers. The book includes a chapter on policy implications, with a special focus on teacher preparation in the United States.