Reflecting on mathematics teaching situations: A comparison of pre-service mathematics teachers’ and mathematics teacher educators’ views

Abstract

The low uptake of Higher Level mathematics (highest level examination in the Irish system) and the large failure rate of mathematics in secondary school state examinations each year have highlighted the need for reform of mathematics education in Ireland. A move towards addressing the teaching and learning of mathematics is being implemented under the new initiative 'Project Maths' which sees greater emphasis placed on student understanding of mathematical concepts and applications. Change must also occur in the training of our mathematics teachers since research internationally has shown that poor conceptual understanding often exists among pre-service mathematics teachers. This study uses critical reflection of video-based experiences and live observations to develop pre-service mathematics teachers' awareness of their subject content knowledge, as well as their pedagogical content knowledge. This paper compares the mathematics teacher educators' reflections to that of the preservice mathematics teachers' reflections. The findings and implications for mathematics teacher education are discussed. 2. Initial teacher education in Ireland In Ireland, initial teacher education is in the form of both consecutive and concurrent programmes. For secondary school teachers the consecutive route is a