The preparation of Mathematics Teachers in Australia - ACDS

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Table 5.8 Teachers’ comments regarding professional development Teachers’ responses to the open questions: What are your views regarding continuing professional development for practicing teachers? What types of professional development would you consider to be most helpful (eg pedagogy; discipline-specific; administrative; other)? Value of ongoing PD Frequency of responses Percentage of teachers 1 (n=2487) % Percentage of responses (n=4954) % highly valuable / essential 653 26.3 13.2 more needed 201 8.1 4.1 of little use 101 4.1 2.0 general pedagogy 783 31.5 15.8 Workshop/seminar topics of most benefit mathematics (discipline) specific 642 25.8 13.0 resource-use, including IT 463 18.6 9.3 enhancing student engagement 331 13.3 6.7 classroom management 332 13.3 6.7 curriculum-specific 206 8.3 4.2 administration 109 4.4 2.2 assessment / grading of student work general (eg time and stressmanagement) 82 3.3 1.7 46 1.8 0.9 all topics should be covered 118 4.7 2.4 Effective PD must be practical and relevant 420 16.9 8.5 peer-learning / sharing ideas and strategies 245 9.9 4.9 Other time-release and/or funding for attendance optional attendance and topic choice 1 85% of teachers (n=2487) responded to this question 160 6.4 3.2 62 2.5 1.3 31
5.6 Tertiary qualifications of mathematics teachers – a summary There was no consensus among heads of mathematics regarding the necessary level of tertiary study for teachers of mathematics. However, it is possible to compare the qualifications of mathematics teachers (as described in this chapter) with the range of heads’ views presented in Chapter 4. Teachers of junior school mathematics - Heads of mathematics expressed lower satisfaction with their schools’ junior school teaching than with teaching at other year levels (see Section 4.2). Forty per cent of heads rated the disciplinary strength of their junior school teachers as ‘adequate’ rather than ‘strong’. Satisfaction with the teaching skills of junior school teachers was lower still, with 44 per cent giving an ‘adequate’ rating. - While the specified level varied, most heads expected teachers of junior school to have studied some mathematics at university (see Section 4.1). Ten per cent of junior school teachers had not (Table 5.4). - Half the heads of mathematics were satisfied with first year level mathematics study (see Section 4.1), and the majority of teachers (90%) satisfied this criterion (Table 5.4). - Seventeen per cent of junior school teachers had not studied mathematics teaching methods (Table 5.2), yet this was deemed essential by nearly all heads of mathematics (95%; see Section 4.1). Teachers of middle school mathematics - The expectations of most heads for middle school mathematics teachers to have studied mathematics to second year university level (see Section 4.1) were met by 83 per cent of teachers (Table 5.4) - Nearly 40 per cent of the heads expected teachers of middle school mathematics to have at least a major in mathematics (see Section 4.1). Thirty per cent of teachers did not meet this criterion (Table 5.4). - Almost all heads deemed study of mathematics teaching methods essential (see Section 4.1). Thirteen per cent of teachers did not meet this criterion (Table 5.2). Teachers of senior school mathematics - Heads’ expectations of tertiary study were highest for teachers of senior school mathematics, and these were the most highly qualified group of teachers. - A major in mathematics was the minimum required by most heads (62%), and another 20 per cent expected senior teachers to have studied mathematics at higher levels (see Section 4.1). However, one in four senior school mathematics teachers lacked a mathematics major, including 17 per cent of teachers of intermediate and advanced senior school mathematics (Table 5.4). - Almost all heads required senior school mathematics teachers to have studied two units, or more, of mathematics teaching methods (see Section 4.1). More than twenty per cent of teachers had not (Table 5.3). 32
Page 2 and 3: The Preparation of Mathematics Teac
Page 4 and 5: Contents Contents..................
Page 6 and 7: Table 6.3 Average age of secondary
Page 8 and 9: Recommendations: The Australian Cou
Page 10 and 11: • Heads of mathematics expressed
Page 12: Acknowledgements This report was pr
Page 15 and 16: Chapter 2: The study’s purpose, m
Page 17 and 18: Questions involving named school su
Page 19 and 20: Box 1: Definitions of selected term
Page 21 and 22: Table 3.1 Responses to survey of he
Page 23 and 24: 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% New South Wales Q
Page 25 and 26: Table 3.5 The number of respondents
Page 27 and 28: Table 3.7 Range of teaching respons
Page 29 and 30: • The expectation of most heads w
Page 31 and 32: In light of the recognised differen
Page 33 and 34: Chapter 5: Mathematics teachers - t
Page 35 and 36: Table 5.2 Number of units of mathem
Page 37 and 38: 100% 80% 60% 40% major less than ma
Page 39 and 40: Table 5.6 Teachers’ perceptions o
Page 41 and 42: Table 5.7 Teachers’ comments rega
Page 43: Further analysis revealed a relatio
Page 47 and 48: Table 6.1 Responses received to the
Page 49 and 50: difference was marked by a ‘spike
Page 51 and 52: 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 20
Page 53 and 54: 250 200 < 5 yrs experience (n=479)
Page 55 and 56: Table 6.8 Career plans of early car
Page 57 and 58: Chapter 7: Recruiting and retaining
Page 59 and 60: In previous years I have had little
Page 61 and 62: 7.2 The career plans of mathematics
Page 63 and 64: (Yes) - Getting too old to teach PE
Page 65 and 66: have contributed to this trend, inc
Page 67 and 68: Chapter 8: What attracts people to
Page 69 and 70: 8.2 Suggestions for attracting more
Page 71 and 72: Chapter 9: Conclusions The growing
Page 73 and 74: Appendix 1: Schools surveyed - addi
Page 75 and 76: Table A1.4 Number of responses from
Page 77 and 78: Appendix 3: Demographics of mathema
Page 79: References Barrington, F. and Brown

The preparation of Mathematics Teachers in Australia - ACDS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?