The Selection and Preparation of Mathematics Teachers :: Education Teaching Essays

The Selection and Preparation of Mathematics Teachers Teacher preparation is a vital component of any educational system. Evidence from research shows that on that point is a 39% difference in the exertion levels of students who kick in or so/least effective teachers. The federal government also recognizes the importance of the classroom teacher. The recent No Child Left Behind legislation emphasizes the contribution that teachers play in achievement. In order to meet the requirements of NCLB, states and universities entrust suffer to change the way that teachers are prepared.Carefully selecting and properly training teachers and and then giving them the authority to teach students as they see fit will go a long way to resolving the low achievement of American students. On the flip side, giving low ability and indisposed trained individuals the opportunity to teach has produced several decades of low student achievement. some of these academic in ally unmotivated teache rs demonstrate little content knowledge or curiosity and have been among the most flagrant violators of scientific application of educational research. Witness the indiscriminate use of trivial tests ( training styles, right/left brain, multiplex intelligences, etc) that pretend to classify students in scant minutes. Worse still is that the learning theory behind these fads may in fact be level more suspect than the test. The current generation of American teachers firmly believes that speech is a universally poor method of instruction, standardized tests are fatally flawed and the group learning is much superior to individual learning, all without scientific justification.If America is to close the achievement gap with other industrialize nations it must be willing to set aside political nicety and educational faddism to place competent teachers in the classroom. There is constant drag for education departments to find new pedagogy, criticize the old pedagogy and by and larg e churn the academic waters so that their existence can be justified. Teacher preparation programs need to focus on only those aspects of educational research which have been proven to produce achievement gains and stop experimenting on prospective teachers and their dependent students.The primary reason I am prosecute a doctorial degree in mathematics education is to have the credentials needed to teach mathematics pedagogy courses to prospective teachers at a four year institution. I feel strongly that my give as a teacher and the intellectual training I am now acquiring will let me make a arbitrary contribution to the cause of producing competent teachers.The area of teacher preparation is beingness extensively researched and is currently a high profile issue in education.