The Mathematical Understandings That Prospective Teachers Bring to Teacher Education
Abstract
This article focuses on the subject matter knowledge of preservice elementary and secondary mathematics teachers. In order to examine what teacher candidates understand about mathematics as they enter formal teacher education, results from questionnaires and interviews with 252 prospective teachers participating in a large study of teacher education are discussed. The results reveal the mathematical understandings that these elementary and secondary teacher candidates brought with them to teacher education from their precollege and college mathematics experiences, understandings that tended to be rule-bound and thin. Based on these data, the article challenges 3 common assumptions about learning to teach elementary or secondary mathematics: (1) that traditional school mathematics content is not difficult, (2) that precollege education provides teachers with much of what they need to know about mathematics, and (3) that majoring in mathematics ensures subject matter knowledge. These assumptions underlie current teacher education practices as well as proposals to reform the preparation of teachers.
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Cites
Knowing, Doing, and Teaching Multiplication
Lampert, M. (1986) · Cognition and Instruction · doi:10.1207/s1532690xci0304_1 · Cited by 329 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Effects of Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching on Student Achievement
Hill, H. C., Rowan, B., & Ball, D. L. (2005) · American Educational Research Journal · doi:10.3102/00028312042002371 · Cited by 2,812 · see citing works
Self-citationDeveloping measures of teachers’ mathematics knowledge for teaching
Hill, H. C., Schilling, S. G., & Ball, D. L. (2004) · The Elementary School Journal · doi:10.1086/428763 · Cited by 902 · see citing works
Self-citationJacob, R., Hill, H., & Corey, D. (2017) · Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness · doi:10.1080/19345747.2016.1273411 · Cited by 154 · see citing works
Stephens, A. C. (2006) · Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education · doi:10.1007/s10857-006-9000-1 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Computing Education Research Today
Fincher, S. A., Tenenberg, J., Dorn, B., Hundhausen, C., McCartney, R., & Murphy, L. (2019) · The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research · doi:10.1017/9781108654555.003 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Exercising Mathematical Authority: Three Cases of Preservice Teachers’ Algebraic Justifications
Prasad, P. V., & Barron, V. J. (2019) · The Mathematics Educator · doi:10.63301/tme.v28i2.2050 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“provide preservice teachers (PSTs) opportunities for developing mathematical authority for two reasons: (a) As future teachers, PSTs need to be able to trust their own mathematical selfefficacy (Ball, 1990); and (b) experiencing a mathematics class in which mathematical authority is shared can encourage PSTs to share…”
Background
- Authors
- Ball, D. L.
- Corresponding author
- Ball, Deborah Loewenberg
- Venue
- The Elementary School Journal
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1990-03
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 449-466
- ISSN
- 0013-5984 (ISSN-L)
- 1554-8279
- OpenAlex
- W2037612913
- Cited by
- 911
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 76 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 46 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 54 · 2014: 66 · 2013: 48 · 2012: 64
- FWCI
- 41.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Elementary School Journal (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques
- Social Sciences › Education › Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › Mathematics Education and Programs
- Keywords
- pre-service teachers, content knowledge, mathematics teacher education, pre-service primary teachers, prospective secondary teachers, mathematical understanding, mathematics majors, teacher preparation reform
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