“How hard could it be to teach something I learned in 3rd
grade?”
Surely this thought has crossed the mind of many elementary
teacher candidates – and those running the programs that prepare them – as they
consider how much training they’ll need to teach students who are still years
away from even hearing the words “trigonometry” and “calculus.”
Unfortunately, like so many aspects of being an educator,
teaching elementary math is far harder than it sounds. Research bears out that elementary and special education teacher
candidates need extensive, well-designed coursework to confidently and
competently teach math – so it’s not enough for teacher candidates to call
forth hazy recollections of when they themselves were in elementary school.
Teacher prep programs haven’t gotten this message. Only one
in five prep programs come close to providing adequate coursework to address
the 12 mathematics topics that need to be covered. This picture looks
especially bleak in graduate programs where, due to the limited availability of
course credits and time, math training seems to be one of the first areas cut. Less
than two percent of graduate elementary and special education programs adequately
address math topics.
What’s worse is that when programs do teach math, they often
focus more on assuaging teacher candidates’ “math anxiety” rather than teaching
them the content that will actually give them confidence in the classroom. Surely
no program would accept a teacher candidate who believes, “I’m just never going
to be good at reading,” and yet this attitude is accepted – and even expected –
for math!
These results are clear: when it comes
to preparation in elementary math, something just doesn’t add up.
