Primary education degree programs in Alicante, Barcelona and Helsinki: Could the differences in the mathematical knowledge of incoming students be explained by the access criteria?

Abstract

This perspective paper draws on the interest in ensuring that students who enter primary teacher training programs have a solid background knowledge of mathematics. We describe the access criteria and requirements for admission to the primary education degree programs at the Universidad de Alicante and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in Spain, and the University of Helsinki, in Finland. We present the results of an evaluation of the mathematical knowledge that students bring to their education as teachers at these three institutions. The results show that in each program, the subgroup of students who had followed the longer track of mathematics courses scored significantly higher on the mathematical test, although this was no longer as clear when we compared across universities. We also found that the students who had taken the mathematics section of the entrance examination or the matriculation examination scored higher on the test than those from the same program who had not, but this tendency broke down when cross-university comparisons were made. We also explored how the cap set on the number of students admitted to the three programs – this being the most striking difference in the admission policies – could be an explanatory variable for these discrepancies. The comparison between universities leads us to hypothesize that expecting applicants to have met certain requirements in their academic trajectories prior to university entrance and adjusting the cap set on the number of places could ensure a better mastery of mathematical knowledge among those students admitted to the Spanish programs.

Nonparametric cognitive diagnosis of profiles of mathematical knowledge of teacher education candidates

“…Subsequently, we applied diagnostic classification models (DCM) to categorize TC according to their specific knowledge, instead of simply comparing candidates against each other based on a continuous scale, as is currently done. This TC evaluation proposal enriches and complements other processes that theoretically deal with students' initial profile in terms of matematical knowledge and skills, since it takes into account both the program's curriculum and/or graduation standards (Gorgorió & Albarracín, 2020;Gorgorió et al, 2021). This allows for deconstructing disciplinary graduation requirements, placing candidates' initial profile in a specific stage in their learning trajectory towards meeting their programs' graduation standards.…”

“…This new emphasis on selection comes from the realization that there are a variety of profiles of mathematical knowledge and skills among TC (Hine, 2015 ; Norton, 2018 ; Qian & Youngs, 2016 ), which can stem from the different learning and teaching trajectories candidates have followed during their particular school programs (Darling-Hammond, 2020 ; Linsell & Anakin, 2013 ; Gorgorió et al, 2021 ) or, from the different learning opportunities provided by their TE programs (Chandía et al, 2021 ; Hiebert et al, 2019 ). This diversity in profiles requires proper identification and timely intervention in terms of candidates’ cognitive profiles from the beginning of the TE programs.…”