It is not unusual for teacher educators to be recruited amongst teachers. Adverts for new teacher educators may even specify school teaching experience as a requirement. However, besides possibly being required to engage in research, there is a difference between teaching mathematics and teaching others to teach mathematics. I was curious as to teacher educators’ experiences of this difference and what – over and above teaching experience – they felt they had needed. So I posted this as a question on ResearchGate.
Several
of the responses reiterated the importance of teaching experience. If the sense
I made of the Spanish is correct, one reply also pointed to the need for greater
knowledge for the teacher educator, the sharing of research as a different
practice, and the (greater) need for entrepreneurship.
Mentoring/feedback
from students or colleagues also came up. Michael A. Buhagiar commented: “Something which I truly wished I had when I became a teacher educator
was some form of mentoring - someone who is there to guide you as you enter
this new world. I felt at a loss with regard to what was expected from me as a
member of a Faculty of Education. I had no clue of the 'do' and 'do nots' both
with regard to colleagues and students. It is as if people expect you to know
what to do when in reality you do not know. I'm thinking in particular to
course structures, assessment procedures, admin work and also what i was
entitled to as a university staff member. I felt deskilled even if I had been a
part-timer for a number of years.”
Lisa Österling mentioned co-teaching on existing courses as a good way to transition, and I guess this is a form of mentoring?
Some mentioned the mental shift from teacher to academic required, and how different the teaching role must be as treating student teachers as learners does not facilitate their growth as professionals.
Personally, I feel at loss at times with things that would be a lot easier to me if I was teaching mathematics. For instance, I can generate or adapt mathematics tasks that simultaneously guide learners to ‘see’ some connections and to practice mathematical reasoning. Tasks where the task situation provides a substantial amount of the feedback to the learners, very much in the tradition of didactical situations. But it is much harder to do the same in teaching mathematics teachers, because reasoning is not sufficient to solve a teaching task in a reasonable way; it requires feedback from a broader context which does not necessarily "behave itself".
Michael A. Buhagiar reflected on the ways to introduce theory to students: “With regards to teaching, I gradually learned that student teachers want their lecturers to be practical rather than theoretical. As I'm a strong believer in a strong theoretical basis to support teacher practices, I had to learn how to introduce theory through practice. And this seems to work as my students continually comment that they like this approach.”
Very much in line with the realistic teacher education approach! (Korthagen et al., 2001). But it leaves unanswered which theories, why these, and what situations/practices generate the need for some theory. What tasks must we generate and set for students to look at practice differently?
Another example. Variation theory tells us lots about how to vary our examples in teaching. I can do that when I teach mathematics, and even when I teach research methods. But when it comes to teacher education, I stumble. I am no longer after conceptual understanding but after developing a basis for professional judgement. What examples work for aspects of that?
So moving into teacher education myself meant confronting the difficulties adjusting well-tested theories to the new "content" as well as to the adult students who have made teaching their career choice.
One response made a distinction between a teacher trainer and a teacher educator, where the former deals with specific and relatively clearly demarcated aspect of teaching mathematics. In contrast, the teacher educator must consider the interplay of all the different relevant aspects, and the journey that the student teacher must traverse.
My own view on this is that the teacher trainer may have in mind a particular approach that ‘should’ be implemented in the classroom (see also the view on theory discussed elsewhere). On the other hand, the teacher educator needs to engage more deeply with the so-called "mathematical knowledge for teaching teachers" (Jankvist et al., 2019; Zopf, 2010) or perhaps “mathematics education knowledge for teaching mathematics teachers”.
How then do we develop this vast knowledge of the philosophy of mathematics, curriculum theory, subject specific education, general pedagogy, etc.? How do we select relevant areas to transpose didactically? How do we sequence this into coherent and engaging programs? How do we obtain reasonably well-founded answers to these questions?
Lisa Österling mentioned co-teaching on existing courses as a good way to transition, and I guess this is a form of mentoring?
Some mentioned the mental shift from teacher to academic required, and how different the teaching role must be as treating student teachers as learners does not facilitate their growth as professionals.
Personally, I feel at loss at times with things that would be a lot easier to me if I was teaching mathematics. For instance, I can generate or adapt mathematics tasks that simultaneously guide learners to ‘see’ some connections and to practice mathematical reasoning. Tasks where the task situation provides a substantial amount of the feedback to the learners, very much in the tradition of didactical situations. But it is much harder to do the same in teaching mathematics teachers, because reasoning is not sufficient to solve a teaching task in a reasonable way; it requires feedback from a broader context which does not necessarily "behave itself".
Michael A. Buhagiar reflected on the ways to introduce theory to students: “With regards to teaching, I gradually learned that student teachers want their lecturers to be practical rather than theoretical. As I'm a strong believer in a strong theoretical basis to support teacher practices, I had to learn how to introduce theory through practice. And this seems to work as my students continually comment that they like this approach.”
Very much in line with the realistic teacher education approach! (Korthagen et al., 2001). But it leaves unanswered which theories, why these, and what situations/practices generate the need for some theory. What tasks must we generate and set for students to look at practice differently?
Another example. Variation theory tells us lots about how to vary our examples in teaching. I can do that when I teach mathematics, and even when I teach research methods. But when it comes to teacher education, I stumble. I am no longer after conceptual understanding but after developing a basis for professional judgement. What examples work for aspects of that?
So moving into teacher education myself meant confronting the difficulties adjusting well-tested theories to the new "content" as well as to the adult students who have made teaching their career choice.
One response made a distinction between a teacher trainer and a teacher educator, where the former deals with specific and relatively clearly demarcated aspect of teaching mathematics. In contrast, the teacher educator must consider the interplay of all the different relevant aspects, and the journey that the student teacher must traverse.
My own view on this is that the teacher trainer may have in mind a particular approach that ‘should’ be implemented in the classroom (see also the view on theory discussed elsewhere). On the other hand, the teacher educator needs to engage more deeply with the so-called "mathematical knowledge for teaching teachers" (Jankvist et al., 2019; Zopf, 2010) or perhaps “mathematics education knowledge for teaching mathematics teachers”.
How then do we develop this vast knowledge of the philosophy of mathematics, curriculum theory, subject specific education, general pedagogy, etc.? How do we select relevant areas to transpose didactically? How do we sequence this into coherent and engaging programs? How do we obtain reasonably well-founded answers to these questions?
Reference
Jankvist,
U. T., Clark, K. M., & Mosvold, R. (2019). Developing mathematical
knowledge for teaching teachers: potentials of history of mathematics in
teacher educator training. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education,
1-22.
Korthagen, F. A., Kessels, J., Koster, B., Lagerwerf, B., & Wubbels, T. (2001). Linking practice and theory: The pedagogy of realistic teacher education. Routledge.
Zopf, D. (2010). Mathematical knowledge for teaching teachers: The mathematical work of and knowledge entailed by teacher education. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/77702/dzopf_1.pdf.
Korthagen, F. A., Kessels, J., Koster, B., Lagerwerf, B., & Wubbels, T. (2001). Linking practice and theory: The pedagogy of realistic teacher education. Routledge.
Zopf, D. (2010). Mathematical knowledge for teaching teachers: The mathematical work of and knowledge entailed by teacher education. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/77702/dzopf_1.pdf.
