Measuring the Impact of Teacher Education on Learning to Teach Mathematics

• In Event: Measuring the Impact of Teacher Education on Learning to Teach Mathematics: The Teacher Education Study in Mathematics

Abstract

1. Objectives

TEDS-M posed three questions: (a) what are the policies that support primary and secondary teachers’ achieved level and depth of mathematics and related teaching knowledge? (b) What learning opportunities, available to prospective primary and secondary mathematics teachers, allow them to attain such knowledge? (c) What are the level and depth of the mathematics and related teaching knowledge attained by prospective primary and secondary teachers at the end of their pre-service teacher education?

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

TEDS-M builds on the work done on teaching knowledge (Shulman, 1987); mathematics knowledge for teaching (Ball & Bass, 2000) program evaluation (Weiss, 1972, 1997), teacher education effects (Author et al., 1993; Author 1996, 1999b), educational reform and teacher education (Author, 1999a, 2007, 2008), and on previous comparative work done by IEA, specifically TIMSS (Mullis et al., 2007).

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

TEDS-M uses the comparative and survey research methods to produce correlational data. Original data was collected through policy documents; assessments of mathematics teaching knowledge; and questionnaires. TEDS-M implemented a two-stage sampling design: (a) selected samples representative of the national population of institutions offering pre-service education to the target populations; (b) all programs in those institutions were included in the survey; (c) within institutions (and programs), samples of educators and of future teachers were surveyed. Samples had to reach the IEA rigorous sampling standards. Sampling errors were computed using balanced half-sample repeated replication (see Fay, 1989; Lohr, 1999; McCarthy, 1966; Author et al., forthcoming).

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials

Policy and context data were collected using country reports, questionnaires and interviews. TEDS-M conducted (a) surveys of the teacher education institutions using an institutional program questionnaire; (b) surveys of educators and mentors of future teachers in the institutions using a teacher educator questionnaire; and (c) surveys of future teachers in the sampled institutions. Questions on future teacher knowledge of mathematics and mathematics pedagogy were investigated via tests developed for that purpose. The following countries participated in the study: Botswana, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Georgia, Germany, Malaysia, Norway, Oman, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United States.

5. Results

The design of the teacher education curricula can have substantial effects on the level of knowledge that future teachers are able to acquire via the opportunities to learn provided to them. Programs that are more successful have coherent opportunities to learn, and rigorous selection strategies and standards.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

TEDS-M is the first cross-national study of teacher preparation to collect data on the curriculum, organization, processes and outcomes of teacher education from national probability samples of institutions, teaching staff and students in these institutions and the first international assessment of learning outcomes based on national samples, not just in teacher education, but in higher education. The study provides the most rigorous scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mathematics teacher preparation to date and offers policy makers well-grounded evidence of what works in mathematics teacher education.

Author

• Maria Teresa Tatto, Michigan State University