"Sticking Together in a World Full of Sharks": Preservice Teachers' Perspectives on Mathematics Content Courses

• In Event: Division K Section 1 Poster Session: Teaching, Teacher Education, and Professional Development in the Content Areas

Abstract

Canadian pre-service teachers (PSTs) take discipline-specific content courses as part of teacher education programs. Specifically, secondary mathematics PSTs take university-level mathematics content courses alongside students from other programs (e.g., science, engineering). In this paper, a case study methodology was used to understand the experiences of secondary mathematics PSTs in these mathematics content courses. During interviews, PSTs spoke of struggling with course content but noted that this allowed them to better understand their future students. Additionally, PSTs expressed feelings of exclusion and isolation, leading them to develop a community to support one another. While PSTs found positive features within negative experiences, this study highlights the need to understand PSTs’ experiences in these courses so that effective improvements can be made.

Authors

• Limin Jao, McGill University

• Gurpreet Sahmbi, University of Toronto - OISE

• Maria-Josée Bran Lopez, McGill University