Teachers not being taught math properly

[SuperJerk 0]

Study: Teachers not being taught math properly

 

WASHINGTON - For kids to do better in math, their teachers might have to go back to school. Elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math, finds a study being released Thursday by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

 

 

Math relies heavily on cumulative knowledge, making the early years critical.

 

The study by the nonpartisan research and advocacy group comes a few months after a federal panel reported that U.S. students have widespread difficulty with fractions, a problem that arises in elementary school and prevents kids from mastering more complicated topics like algebra later on.

 

The report looked at 77 elementary education programs around the country, or roughly 5 percent of the institutions that offer undergraduate elementary teacher certification.

 

It found the programs, within colleges and universities, spend too little time on elementary math topics.

 

Author Julie Greenberg said education students should be taking courses that give them a deeper understanding of arithmetic and multiplication. She said the courses should explain how math concepts build upon each other and why certain ideas need to be emphasized in the classroom.

 

Teacher candidates know their multiplication tables, but "they don't come to us knowing why multiplication works the way it does," said Denise Mewborn, who heads the University of Georgia department of math and science education.

 

The university was cited in the report for having an "exemplary program," while nine others met basic requirements. The rest offered too little math coursework or coursework that was considered weak, according to the report.

 

The University of Georgia requires teacher candidates to take courses to help them understand concepts underlying elementary-school math, as well as math courses not designed for teachers.

 

The report found significant differences in the number and kind of courses required by each education program.

 

Education schools also are not being selective enough, the report stated. Most require applicants to take an admissions test, usually around their sophomore year of college. But the test, which typically includes reading, writing and math sections, is far too easy, according to the report.

 

"Almost anyone can get in. Compared to the admissions standards found in other countries, American education schools set exceedingly low expectations for the mathematics knowledge that aspiring teachers must demonstrate," said the report.

 

U.S. children often fall in the middle or bottom of the pack when compared to other students on international math tests.

 

Jane West, vice president of government relations for the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, said her organization had not received a copy of the report Wednesday. The National Council on Teacher Quality plans to release it publicly at a news conference Thursday.

 

The report also criticized the tests education students take when they complete their coursework, which are generally relied on by states in granting teacher licenses. In many cases, the prospective teachers are judged on an overall score only, meaning they could do badly on the math portion but still pass if they do well in the other areas.

 

Since states oversee the preparation of the nation's school teachers, the report recommends they set tougher coursework and testing standards.

 

Francis Fennell, the past president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, said the report fails to examine the math instruction students receive while attending community colleges, where many elementary-school teachers start their higher education.

 

He also said the study's authors should have surveyed teachers to get their views on how well prepared they were to teach math.

 

Fennell, who instructs teacher candidates in math at McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., said a common area of weakness among his students is fractions — the same subject the national math panel described as a weak area for kids. "Part of the reason the kids don't know it is because the teachers aren't transmitting that," he said.

 

To boost teachers' understanding of math, the math departments at universities ought to place more emphasis on training educators, Fennell added.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080626/ap_on_...e/teaching_math

 

When I got my Master's in Special Education a few years back, I saw this as well. I think this is a larger trend in general, applicable to all subject and grade levels. For example, when I first started student teaching I didn't feel I was prepared. There's a reason so many teachers work as hard as they can, but the kids never seem to get ahead. Teacher education relies too much on theoretical psychology, and not enough on subject matter comprehension or usable techniques.

[Timmy8271 0]

No it's because school's these days are too focused on stupid Standardized testing and trying to impress the school board to get more money. Hell I remember having to teach the teachers cause they didn't know some stuff. This doesn't surprise me in the least.

[Vampiro69 0]

In ways you are both right. Some schools are teaching towards the tests. While in college teachers are taught the theory of teaching and other such pointless information. I have talked to many teachers who have felt that college didn't prepare them for their profession and what they go through.

[Jingus 0]

Some teachers don't have a choice about teaching towards the standardized tests. Here in Texas, if a kid doesn't pass the test, they either have to go to summer school or repeat the grade. This is completely separate from individual classroom grades which are also required to pass.

[SuperJerk 0]

None of have a choice in teaching towards the standardized test, but that's not really an excuse. Most of the stuff on the test is stuff we were supposed to be teaching anyways. I'm not happy with the tests are graded, such as how writing tests are frequently used to measure reading ability, or the way data is collected using NCLB regulations, or how testing has made science and social studies education an after-thought, but if the tests are well designed they can be a useful measure to gage student learning.

 

 

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Well another problem is that the education profession is not attracting the best people into its field anyway. We've adopted a mindset in some circles that people with 4.0 GPA's shouldn't be teaching. Yes, you heard that right. Two friends of mine with 4.0's were turned down for some teaching jobs on the basis that they were overqualified or that they were "too smart" to teach. WHAT?!?!? Luckily I didn't have this problem. However, in my education courses I would always look around at those in the room and let me just say that they were not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

[SuperJerk 0]

So long as we're talking about it...I'm super-annoyed that how many sports you can coach is a deciding factor when applying for high school jobs (especially social studies).

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

So long as we're talking about it...I'm super-annoyed that how many sports you can coach is a deciding factor when applying for high school jobs (especially social studies).

 

Tell me about it. Thank God I know how to coach speech & debate team (and have a track record of coaching well) because that's how I got my first teaching job a month or so ago and even selling that was difficult because the big question was "How is that going to bring money into our school?" I guess it also helped that the school I applied too wasn't too good at sports so they need to find success in some extra curricular activity.

[Timmy8271 0]

So long as we're talking about it...I'm super-annoyed that how many sports you can coach is a deciding factor when applying for high school jobs (especially social studies).

 

Oh yeah that's a big factor. Senior year of high school, Most of my teacher were either too old to care or coaches for the shitty school sports. Hell most of the time we watched movies instead of learning history.

[Gary Floyd 0]

So that explains why I nearly failed a math class in 12th grade.

[At Home 0]

As a former AP/IB student, the AP program is killing academia.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

As a former AP/IB student, the AP program is killing academia.

 

Not that I disagree with your view but could you elaborate?

[Jingus 0]

Yeah, how so? I took a couple of AP classes, and didn't see anything wrong with them, other than requiring a crazy amount of studying and homework.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

I was also an AP'er. However, I know some people that do not like AP's because it takes all the bright kids out of classrooms and leaves the rest of teachers with unruly environments of kids who could care less about learning leading to lowered standards for those students. My view of the matter is that's too bad because I felt that aside from AP's, the school never met my needs as a gifted student and I definitely would learn less if I was in a classroom of other apathetic classmates who just caused trouble.

[Jingus 0]

My high school kind of had a multi-tier system. It had regular classes, and then Honors classes, and then AP classes. These weren't offered in all the subjects, it was kinda haphazard, but English, math, science, and social studies all tended to go that way. Plus maybe some remedial classes for the really dumb/bad kids, but I don't remember exactly.

[Maztinho 0]

I know that Elementary Ed at my Uni was a total and complete joke. I was headed for a Music Ed degree for Secondary, but for some of the core Ed courses it was a mismash of Elem and Secondary students. One day, one of the Elementary Ed girls was doing some worksheets for one of her classes which was basically 3rd grade equivalent Math and she was amazed that I could do most of the problems in my head.

 

Stuff that was slightly harder than your basic times tables, i.e. 16 X 3.

 

She was amazed!

 

How is she supposed to teach the kids if she's taking 10 minutes or so to work out 6 simple math problems herself?

 

I was also shocked that there was a girl in my Teaching Tech class (learning the basics of website design, how to teach the kids to surf the internet for information, doing slide shows, etc.) that couldn't follow simple instructions from the professor and had to be helped on nearly every single step along the way (usually by me). When I went into my Application Interview the Professor said I was one of the most well spoken applicants he'd seen all day, and I was just pulling most of the shit out of my ass, and it was probably the worst interview I've ever done in my life. Although my righteous indignation tirade on Zero Tolerance probably over shadowed any slip up in other aspects of the interview (Fuck you Zero Tolerance).

[The Niggardly King 0]

fuck math besides the basics fuck you education system.

[SuperJerk 0]

As a former AP/IB student, the AP program is killing academia.

Newsweek uses the number of kids enrolled in AP classes as its sole criteria for judged school quality, according to its annual "America's Best Schools" issue.

 

I'm not kidding...

Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2007 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380

 

 

 

On the other hand...

fuck math besides the basics fuck you education system.

 

Er, um, uh...okay...

[At Home 0]

AP academia focuses purely on a test. As difficult and encompassing as it is, it fails to cover an extremely large amount of information due to the sheer rapidness that is required to even barely meet expectations. This has come under very heavy criticism as of late, by teachers and students alike.

[Just John 0]

I actually remember more shit from my AP classes than I do from any other HS class, and even a lot of college classes (which obviously have the advantage or being more recent). Pretty much every class I've ever been in "teaches to a test" in some fashion, so I guess it makes sense that the moderately challenging tests are the ones that stuck with me the most.

[SuperJerk 0]

Well another problem is that the education profession is not attracting the best people into its field anyway. We've adopted a mindset in some circles that people with 4.0 GPA's shouldn't be teaching. Yes, you heard that right. Two friends of mine with 4.0's were turned down for some teaching jobs on the basis that they were overqualified or that they were "too smart" to teach. WHAT?!?!? Luckily I didn't have this problem. However, in my education courses I would always look around at those in the room and let me just say that they were not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

I don't think pay is the problem, given a teaching contract starts at $30,000 for 180 days (even if we're talking 10 hour days). I think a bigger problem is with retaining people and the high turn-over in the profession because of frustrations with administrative incompetence, parental resistance, and too many demands on a teacher's time within a school that have nothing to do with actual teaching or student assessment. I've seen hundreds of man-hours wasted on things like writing mission statements, pointless meetings, and so-called professional development that has either little practical application or that is not follwo through correctly.

[sfaJack 0]

I don't think pay is the problem, given a teaching contract starts at $30,000 for 180 days (even if we're talking 10 hour days). I think a bigger problem is with retaining people and the high turn-over in the profession because of frustrations with administrative incompetence, parental resistance, and too many demands on a teacher's time within a school that have nothing to do with actual teaching or student assessment. I've seen hundreds of man-hours wasted on things like writing mission statements, pointless meetings, and so-called professional development that has either little practical application or that is not follwo through correctly.

Agreed 100%.

 

My mother was an elementary and special ed teacher for 28 years and, while she still enjoyed working with the kids in her final years, all of those things you mention (particularly what I bolded above) were things that had sucked almost all of the fun out of her job. It was a really sad progression to watch because she used to really love her job. I think the thing she complained about the most was when the district put in a policy of "no grades lower than 50 on any assignment so." Even if the child didn't turn said assignment in, they STILL got a 50.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

I don't think pay is the problem, given a teaching contract starts at $30,000 for 180 days (even if we're talking 10 hour days). I think a bigger problem is with retaining people and the high turn-over in the profession because of frustrations with administrative incompetence, parental resistance, and too many demands on a teacher's time within a school that have nothing to do with actual teaching or student assessment. I've seen hundreds of man-hours wasted on things like writing mission statements, pointless meetings, and so-called professional development that has either little practical application or that is not follwo through correctly.

 

I agree with you 100% as well. I don't complain about the pay. I think its a good salary for 180 days. My first teaching salary is $34,700. Which is a nice chunk of change in my view for getting summers off.