Practising Mathematics Teacher Education: Expanding The Realm of Possibilities

It is often said that student teachers’ underlying beliefs of what mathematics consists of and how it should be taught are restricted in two ways. On the one hand, future elementary teachers in general use only weak mathematical conceptions, which often do not help them to realise their educational ambitions. On a general educational level, many of these students advocate discovery learning and collective problem solving, but when it comes down to the mathematical activities that have to be prepared, their experience of “traditional” school mathematics is of little help. On the other hand, future (higher) secondary teachers mostly are very well prepared with respect to formal academic mathematics when entering mathematics education programmes, either because they have already passed a mathematical formation at university or because their teacher education programmes emphasise the study of academic mathematics and not of educational or didactical modules

Learning to Teach Mathematics: Expanding the Role of Practicum as an Integrated Part of a Teacher Education Programme

Teacher education programmes at tertiary educational institutions traditionally comprise three key strands—disciplinary studies, educational studies, and teaching practice. The relevance of teaching practice, especially when student teachers are given the opportunity to pilot new didactic proposals they have contributed to develop, has been shown to be very high in different national teacher education contexts, even when the differences are significant in terms of structure, organization, and curriculum. In the paper some interesting examples presented at the study conference of ways of working with and through practicum will be discussed. Some of these concern how the educational and motivational payoff of practicum can be increased by the choice of structure of the programme. In addition, theoretical tools related to practicum activities have been developed and integrated in the education. Examples of more specific practices are also presented, and some questions are raised concerning issues of cultural differences in relation to practicum. Finally, some conclusions are drawn pointing to the expanding role of practicum as an integrated part of a mathematics teacher education programme

Didactics of Mathematics as a Research Field in Scandinavia

This chapter presents an overview of the development of didactics of mathematics as a research domain in the three Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. This presentation is linked to the development of the school system and teacher education. Some important trends that have been of particular importance to each of the countries will be described and an account of the current situation will be given. At the end there is a section about collaborative projects that have taken place in the whole Nordic and Baltic area