Pre-service primary teachers have a say on genericism in mathematics curriculum preparation

Stephen Norton, Jeanne Allen
2020 Curriculum perspectives  
The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that investigated pre-service teachers' perceptions about an attempt to prepare them to teach mathematics to primary aged children. Mixed methods were used to provide basic statistics data and to categorise and summarise qualitative data. Contextualised in an Australian initial teacher education program, the study first surveyed 447 first-year pre-service primary teachers to achieve insight into what they wanted to gain from their forthcoming
more » ... hematics curriculum courses. Qualitative responses were categorised and used to guide the development of tailored course interventions, which focused on attempting to ensure depth of school mathematics content knowledge and specific pedagogy associated with this mathematics. A second survey, administered through post-course evaluations (n = 261), suggests that pre-service teachers overwhelmingly valued the modelling of specific pedagogies and scaffolding of the teaching and learning of school mathematics concepts. The results have implications for the teaching of mathematics in initial teacher education programs, particularly in Australia and elsewhere where there is an increasing emphasis on pre-service teachers being classroom ready at graduation. This includes a deep and connected knowledge of the mathematics and range of pedagogies for the mathematics they will soon be certified to teach.
doi:10.1007/s41297-020-00105-5 fatcat:qhsp3anlgvdqblklw6jyobvti4