What is the Education of Mathematics Education Professors
Postscript: May 14th, 2006
|
Begin Post Script Addendum: October 22, 2009)
Mathematics Teacher training programs which
employ math education professors who do not have a
knowledge of calculus and high school mathematics should lose
their certification until the host school or college for the
program provides mathematics education professor with a verified
command of calculus and high school mathematics. The needs
of the many should outweigh the needs and the acquired tenure of
the few. Mathematics Teaching Training programs
cannot sincerely justify the hiring and promotion of mathematics
education professors who lack a knowledge of the discipline less
than recommended by educational authorities for entrance into
their own programs.
I have met high school math teachers without a
formal background in mathematics or quantitative discipline. But
I have met mathematics education professors in charge of
mathematics teaching formation, mathematics education who lack a
full command of calculus and senior high school mathematics. As
consequence, would-be and in-service teachers cannot be properly
served nor guided by such education professor. Education
professors who lead or design math teacher education program and
who simultaneously monitor the quality of course design and
delivery in local schools need a mastery not only of pedagogy,
but also of subject matter. Colleges and universities which
give master degrees in education for theses on minor matters in
mathematics education are participating in a publish or perish
farce.
End Post Script Addendum: October 22,
2009)
|
Are calculus phobic Mathematics Education Professors to blame for several
hundred or a thousand hours of mathematics instruction in primary and
secondary schools which fail to prepare students for college mathematics,
which fail to give students an efficient fraction skills and sense? Just
as we specify the minimal mathematics background of future secondary
school teachers, should we specify the minimal subject skill and
knowledge of Mathematics Education Professors.
In the present dark ages of mathematics instruction, Professors of
Mathematics Education have not emphasized the needs of college
mathematics or calculus in the training of primary school and high school
teachers, and in the design and exposition of high school mathematics
textbooks. Thus many students graduate from primary school and even
high school without efficient fraction sense and skills, and several
hundred to a thousand hours of mathematics instruction time come to
naught, less than expected, and may be written off as a
contribution to the education of many students. Site books and
further site areas point to remedies for self-application by students,
teachers and Professors of Mathematics Education. Professors of
mathematics education should teach first courses in differential and
integral calculus fully in order to know what calculus-driven standards
need to be emphasized in the mathematical formation of primary and
secondary school teachers, and of students in general.
Professors of Mathematics Education should take note
of earlier difficulties in mathematics, the introduction
and development of the shorthand algebraic way of writing and reasoning
in mathematics, and the inclusion of too many topics and directions in
course design which continue today. Professors of
Mathematics education need to read and correct textbooks in the student
catch basins of their universities, or they need to ask mathematics
professors in their college or university to perform this task for the
sake of quality and perhaps a leaner exposition of mathematics based on
the needs of calculus and before the elementary application of numbers
with measures and masses - two focuses for mathematics learning and
teaching. Here again mathematicians should be included so that
key skills and topics are emphasized and the logical need for some
topics questioned. Many college calculus instructors limit or disallow
the use of calculators because its ease of use and ill-use sabotages
the intellectual component of mathematics.
Professors of mathematics education who are calculus phobic should
be extremely rare or non-existence in Education Colleges and Faculties.
How common are they?
Finally, there guidelines for the formation of secondary mathematics
instructors call for many courses in mathematics at the college
level. For the sake of consistency, mathematics education professor
should have had a similar dose of mathematics and more. Anything
less calls into question the hiring and promotion policies in schools of
education.
|
|