Mathematicians can learn a lot from school
faculty about what it means to teach and to sup
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port mathematical growth. In the EMTTP projec
we’ve learned that teaching elementary school
is harder than we’d imagined and that the issues
elementary teachers face on a daily basis go far
beyond issues of mathematical content. The is
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sues of content are certainly central, but the
classroom culture and student and teacher in
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teraction play a much greater role in elementary
schools where students are in the early stages
of finding out what learning means. Along with
our differences, however, there are issues that
we have in common. For example, the balance
between technical skill and understanding that
the upper elementary grade teachers are con
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cerned about is also of concern in the calculus
reform efforts, and as teachers at all levels re
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consider their mathematics curriculum, we must
address the issue of assessment jointly. Through
our work in this project we’ve learned new ways
to approach our preservice mathematics classes,
and we believe even more strongly in the need
to provide preservice teachers with a program
that is classroom-based and integrates both con
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tent and pedagogical knowledge in mathemat
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ics. For mathematicians, there is simply no sub
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stitute for regular work in schools to prepare one
for working with preservice teachers. While not
all members of mathematics departments will be
involved in this work, it seems important that
as a community we become more aware of the
issues of teaching mathematics at all levels and
of the need for on-going connections between un
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dergraduate and precollege mathematics pro
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grams.