The preparation of Mathematics Teachers in Australia - ACDS

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Table 6.7 Employment history of mathematics teachers Employment history (if teaching was not their first profession, responses teachers were asked to describe their most recent, previous occupation) n % Teaching as first profession* 2116 72.4 Previous profession - science-base e.g chemical research Previous profession – mathematics-based e.g statistical analysis Previous profession – other e.g computing systems engineering Previous occupation e.g military service 112 3.8 16 0.5 434 14.8 168 5.7 Unknown** 26 2.7 Total* 2924 100 *2875/2924 teachers completed this question **teachers indicated that teaching was not their first profession, but did not provide details
Table 6.8 Career plans of early career teachers, grouped according to previous employment Response to the question: Do you think that you will be teaching secondary school Mathematics teachers mathematics in 5 years time? with < 5 years teaching experience Yes Probably Unsure No Teaching as first profession (n= 230) Previously employed (n=234) 37.0% 33.5% 19.6% 10.0% 49.1% 23.1% 18.4% 9.4% 6.4 The teachers of junior, middle and senior schools mathematics classes Section 6.2 describes the characteristics of all mathematics teachers, independent of the type of mathematics that they taught. In this section, teacher characteristics are described from the perspective of the mathematics taught, rather than the teachers. For example, where the focus is on middle school mathematics, the characteristics of all teachers teaching at that level is presented. A teacher-focused analysis of teaching patterns, including analysis of age and teaching experience, is presented Chapter 3, Section 3.2. This section makes reference to Chapter 3, and to Table 3.5 in particular. Teachers of junior school mathematics were the group of mathematics teachers most likely to teach non-mathematics subjects (Table 6.9). They also tended to be, on average, younger and less experienced. Conversely, teachers of senior school mathematics are the eldest, most experienced and least likely to teach non-mathematics subjects. More pronounced differences emerged in the characteristics of teacher groups when senior school mathematics were analysed by level of complexity (Table 6.9). Teachers of advanced senior mathematics were typically male, highly experienced and among the least likely to teach non-mathematics subjects. As Table 6.9 describes all teachers involved in teaching a particular school level, and because many teachers were involved in teaching several school levels (see Chapter 3; Table 3.5), some more pronounced differences in teacher groups were masked. Table 6.10 describes the characteristics of three groups of teachers with ‘narrower’ mathematics teaching responsibilities - those who teach: only junior or middle school mathematics; only senior mathematics; or only intermediate or advanced senior mathematics. Mathematics teachers who do not teach senior school are far more likely (78%) to teach nonmathematics subjects than are those who teach intermediate or advanced senior mathematics (44%) (Table 6.10). The difference in teaching experience is equally marked. Those who do not teach senior school have a median of ten years teaching experience, in contrast to a median of 22 years for those who teach only senior school (Table 6.10). Teachers whose mathematics teaching is restricted to junior school (see Chapter 3, Table 3.5) are, on average, younger than their colleagues (39.1yrs) (p
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 and 44: Further analysis revealed a relatio
Page 45 and 46: 5.6 Tertiary qualifications of math
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: 250 200 < 5 yrs experience (n=479)
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
show all

The preparation of Mathematics Teachers in Australia - ACDS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?