This course addresses five equally important and interrelated standards that describe the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that well-prepared beginning teachers of elementary mathematics need by the end of their initial teacher preparation program. These standards are based on the recommendations of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, and you can find very detailed descriptions of these standards and the indicators that you have met each standards are available on here: https://amte.net/sptm.
Additionally, this page includes a table that shows how the learning standards and their main learning objectives map to standards for preparing elementary teachers and teachers of mathematics as outlined by UTK ProCADs, AMTE, CAEP Standards, InTASC Standards, and TN Literacy Standards.
Well-prepared beginning teachers of mathematics possess robust knowledge of mathematical concepts that underlie what they encounter in teaching. They engage in appropriate mathematical practices and support their students in doing the same. They can read, analyze, and discuss curriculum, assessment, and standards documents as well as students’ mathematical procedures.
You can describe the key concepts necessary for the development of counting, whole number operations, geometry, and fractions.
You can analyze and interpret mathematics curriculum materials and standards documents to identify central mathematical ideas relevant to a specific grade-level.
You can select and use effectively tools, technology, or other resources to support mathematical reasoning and sense making.
Well-prepared beginning teachers of mathematics have foundations of pedagogical knowledge, effective and equitable mathematics teaching practices, and positive and productive dispositions toward teaching mathematics to support students’ sense making, understanding, and reasoning.
You can adapt tasks for collaborative learning that draw on structures and features proven to effectively support the learning of mathematics by each student.
You can analyze teacher discourse moves to provide evidence of their effectiveness in eliciting and responding to students’ mathematical thinking.
You can develop and facilitate mathematics activities that leverage other sources (e.g., family, community, STEAM, literacy) of knowledge, resources, or experiences to support students to explore and grapple with mathematical ideas and relationships.
Well-prepared beginning teachers of mathematics have foundational understanding of students’ mathematical knowledge, skills, and dispositions. They also know how these understandings can contribute to effective teaching and are committed to expanding and deepening their knowledge of students as learners of mathematics.
You can anticipate student approaches to rich mathematics problems, including both conventional and unconventional strategies, and you can relate those strategies to the mathematical concepts students are learning.
You can analyze students’ problem solving strategies to provide evidence of what students know and can do.
Well-prepared beginning teachers of mathematics realize that the social, historical, and institutional contexts of mathematics affect teaching and learning and know about and are committed to their critical roles as advocates for each and every student.
You seek to actively position all learners as mathematical doers by explicitly identifying a range of abilities that students draw on to contribute to mathematical work of tasks.
You demonstrate a belief that all people are capable of thinking mathematically and are capable of solving sophisticated mathematical problems with effort when those problems are crafted to be accessible.
You can use mathematics education research to critically engage in conversations to understand and address inequitable learning experiences in mathematics.
Well-prepared beginning teachers of mathematics recognize that teaching mathematics is complex and that learning to teach mathematics more effectively is a career-long endeavor. They know that always looking to improve their teaching requires maximum effort, reflection, and collaboration.
You can analyze and learn from teaching to improve your own teaching to more effectively support student learning.
You demonstrate a belief that the development of teaching happens through collaboration with your professional colleagues, families, and communities and through engagement with the research-base in mathematics education.
You actively engage with course assignments and discussion to the full extent of your ability.
©Frances K. Harper, 2020