How can this intuition—that better grasp of mathematics would produce better teaching—appear to be so wrong? KTEM suggests an answer. It seems that successful completion of college course work is not evidence of thorough understanding
of elementary mathematics. Most university mathematicians see much of advanced mathematics as a deepening and broadening, a refinement and clarification, an extension and fulfillment of elementary mathematics. However, it seems that it is possible to take and pass advanced courses without understanding how they illuminate more elementary
material, particularly if one’s understanding of that material is superficial. Over the past ten years or so, Deborah Ball and others [B1–3] have interviewed many teachers and prospective teachers, probing their grasp of the principles behind school mathematics. KTEM extends this work to a transnational context. The picture that emerges is highly instructive—and sobering. Mathematicians can be pleased to have at last powerful evidence that mathematical knowledge
of teachers does play a vital role in mathematics learning. However, it seems also that the kind of knowledge that is needed is different from what most U.S. teacher preparation schemes provide, and we have currently hardly any institutional structures for fostering the appropriate kind of understanding.
How can this intuition—that better grasp of mathematics would produce better teaching—appear to be so wrong? KTEM suggests an answer. It seems that successful completion of college course work is not evidence of thorough understandingof elementary mathematics. Most university mathematicians see much of advanced mathematics as a deepening and broadening, a refinement and clarification, an extension and fulfillment of elementary mathematics. However, it seems that it is possible to take and pass advanced courses without understanding how they illuminate more elementarymaterial, particularly if one’s understanding of that material is superficial. Over the past ten years or so, Deborah Ball and others [B1–3] have interviewed many teachers and prospective teachers, probing their grasp of the principles behind school mathematics. KTEM extends this work to a transnational context. The picture that emerges is highly instructive—and sobering. Mathematicians can be pleased to have at last powerful evidence that mathematical knowledgeof teachers does play a vital role in mathematics learning. However, it seems also that the kind of knowledge that is needed is different from what most U.S. teacher preparation schemes provide, and we have currently hardly any institutional structures for fostering the appropriate kind of understanding.
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