Logo image
Back
Improving Initial Teacher Education Students’ Confidence in Mathematics: Building Trust into a Mathematics Curriculum
Book chapter

Improving Initial Teacher Education Students’ Confidence in Mathematics: Building Trust into a Mathematics Curriculum

Christos Markopoulos, William E Boyd, Patrick Bruck and Koralia Petta
Re-imagining Teaching Improvement: From Early Childhood to University, pp.313-333
Springer Nature Singapore, First edition
01/2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7746-8_15
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Education Publications

Metrics

72 Record Views

Abstract

Curriculum development Initial teacher education Learning risks Mathematics anxiety Mathematics competence Mathematics confidence Trust Mathematics and numeracy curriculum and pedagogy Teacher education and professional development of educators Higher education Assessment, development and evaluation of curriculum
Mathematics education is in crisis! There is a public moral outrage, at least in Australia, regarding declining student numbers and teaching quality. Universities respond to this public rhetoric by re-evaluating mathematics teacher education. In this chapter we examine a SoTL-driven re-design of first-year compulsory teacher trainer mathematics classes. We describe a case study of the design and evaluation of a first-year Initial Teacher Education Mathematics discipline unit. The data in this study is comprised of three sets. Firstly, students’ achievements in the unit across six consecutive years (from 2015 to 2020). Secondly, students’ responses to an anonymous survey in the beginning of each teaching session and finally, students’ anonymous responses to unit feedback surveys at the end of each teaching session. An initial evaluation has proven to be positive, as evidenced by improved student engagement and performance. A significant shift in students’ normative expectations is reflected in positive responses regarding their own capacities to engage in mathematics learning. Students become willing to take risks in learning as they move from passive trust, through active mistrust, to active trust. Building trust explains a student’s exclamation that, “I CAN do maths!”.

Related content

Is part of

Details

Logo image