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Are We Singing from the Same Songbook?

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What Counts in Teaching Mathematics

Part of the book series: Self Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices ((STEP,volume 11))

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Abstract

Very early in my career as a mathematics teacher educator, I realized that the prospective teachers and I were marching to a different tune, and tensions existed that needed to be addressed. These tensions included differences between their beliefs about mathematics teaching and my beliefs, issues that arose as they negotiated their way through practicum with newly formed ideas about teaching, and tensions that I felt about how to help them work through their first year of teaching. This chapter explores these tensions and how we dealt with them by including explicit modelling of the teaching techniques I was advocating, especially group work; using the topics that might be problematic for classroom students as a basis of the workshops; establishing mentoring support within the cohort before they finished their university course; and once they started teaching, holding Saturday afternoon debriefs early in each term of their first year of teaching.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Research in Learning and Change, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Anne Prescott

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  1. Anne Prescott
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Correspondence to Anne Prescott .

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  1. University of Technology, PO Box 222, Lindfield, 2070, Australia

    Sandy Schuck

  2. DePaul University, N. Kenmore 2323, Chicago, 60614, USA

    Peter Pereira

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Prescott, A. (2011). Are We Singing from the Same Songbook?. In: Schuck, S., Pereira, P. (eds) What Counts in Teaching Mathematics. Self Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0461-9_11

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