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

[Findell, Brad]

Thomas,

As someone who has taught in both mathematics departments and colleges of education, the best answer is BOTH.  Teacher education should be a partnership across education and arts and sciences, and in the ideal world the partnership would worry about WHO teaches the course rather than in which department she or he resides.   Many of the best secondary mathematics teacher educators, after all, could hold an appointment in either mathematics or education at many universities, so it would be unfortunate to prevent such a person from teaching a course based only on an accident of institutional history.

Sometimes courses are shared across departments, ...

Regards,
brad

Bradford R. Findell, Ph.D.
Mathematics Initiatives Administrator
Ohio Department of Education
25 South Front St., Mail Stop 509
Columbus, OH  43215-4813
Phone: 614-466-2947
Fax: 614-387-0421
Brad.Findell at ode.state.oh.us<mailto:Brad.Findell at ode.state.oh.us>
________________________________
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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