Training K-6 Mathematics Teachers
Teacher training in mathematics is seriously focused on high school
teachers. As a post-secondary teacher, I have always had issues with this focus
because all the evidence points to math learning deficits developing much
earlier in children. For example, students do not fail to learn how
to add common fractions in high school; it is a topic that should be
mastered in elementary school.
The working paper:
World Class Standards For Preparing Teachers of Mathematics,
by Wm. Schmidt, Burroughs, N., and Cogan, L. is particularly interesting
because its focus is teacher preparation for K-8.
This report uses data from the ``Teacher Education and Development Study -
Mathematic" (TEDS-M). TEDS-M evaluated 900 programs in 17 countries.