MSU study finds that U.S. middle school math teachers are ill-prepared
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Middle school math teachers in the United States are not as well prepared to teach this subject compared to teachers in five other countries, something that could negatively affect the U.S. as it continues to compete on an international scale.
The findings of this new Michigan State University study, Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century (MT21), were presented today at a press conference at the National Press Club.
“Our future teachers are getting weak training mathematically and are just not prepared to teach the demanding mathematics curriculum we need for middle schools if we hope to compete internationally,” said William Schmidt, MSU Distinguished Professor of counseling, educational psychology and special education, who directed the study.
MT21 studied how well a sample of universities and teacher-training institutions prepare middle school math teachers in the U.S., South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Bulgaria and Mexico. Specifically, 2,627 future teachers were surveyed about their preparation, knowledge and beliefs in this area.
“It is important for us as a nation to understand that teacher preparation programs are critical, not only for future teachers, but also for the children they will be teaching,” Schmidt said.
The length of teacher preparation requirements varied from four to seven years among the countries, according to the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation.
“The real issue is the courses they take and the experiences they have while in their programs,” Schmidt said. “It’s not just the amount of formal mathematics training they get. It also involves training in the practical aspects of teaching middle school math and of teaching in general.”
Compared to the other countries, the U.S. future teachers ranked from the middle to the bottom on MT21 measures of math knowledge.
“What’s most disturbing is that one of the areas in which U.S. future teachers tend to do the worst is algebra, and algebra is the heart of middle school math,” Schmidt said. “When future teachers in the study were asked about opportunities to learn about the practical aspects of teaching mathematics, again we ranked mediocre at best.” (more…)
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