[RUME] Who should prepare H.S. math teachers?

[Hill, Richard O.]

Thomas,

            I do not quite understand your question.  From your school's catalog, you seem to require a bachelor's degree in math, slightly modified for secondary ed majors. (This is common.)  It is unclear what education courses are required.  Here, it is similar and the math department oversees the math requirements; the college of ed oversees the ed requirements.  It is difficult to get cooperation, which mostly is lived by both without any.  Except, recently we have been developing a capstone course team taught by a mathematician and a math educator.  (See my web site.)  It is unclear what will eventually happen with this.  Are you asking who should oversee your final course or the whole secondary math ed program?f
            The suggestion to look at MET is good.

Richard Hill

________________________________
From: rume-bounces at betterfilecabinet.com [mailto:rume-bounces at betterfilecabinet.com] On Behalf Of O'Malley, Thomas J.
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 2:09 PM
To: rume at betterfilecabinet.com
Subject: [RUME] Who should prepare H.S. math teachers?

Does anyone have a reference to a written or oral statement from a group such as NCATE, NCTM, MAA, or CBMS, or a state education department concerning the desirability of having high school math teachers being prepared by mathematics versus education faculty?

This issue has come up at my school with both departments making a good case on paper for their having control of this; each dept. currently has one person with previous HS math teaching experience.  We are a small liberal arts college with a very crowded set of requirements for future math teachers.  For 80+ years we have had a single content-plus-methods course for preparing HS math teachers (there are separate content and methods courses for both elementary and middle school math).  There would be little tolerance for adding to student loads by having separate H.S. content and methods courses.  The math dept teaches this course; its graduates have long been praised as being the best prepared math teachers among those from area colleges.

Dr Thomas O'Malley
Mount Union College
1972 Clark Avenue
Alliance, OH   44641
omalletj at muc.edu


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