Research Trends in Mathematics Teacher Education

Research on the preparation and continued development of mathematics teachers is becoming an increasingly important subset of mathematics education research. Such research explores the attributes, knowledge, skills and beliefs of mathematics teachers as well as methods for assessing and developing these critical aspects of teachers and influences on teaching.

Research Trends in Mathematics Teacher Education focuses on three major themes in current mathematics teacher education research: mathematical knowledge for teaching, teacher beliefs and identities, and tools and techniques to support teacher learning. Through careful reports of individual research studies and cross-study syntheses of the state of research in these areas, the book provides insights into teachers’ learning processes and how these processes can be harnessed to develop effective teachers. Chapters investigate bedrock skills needed for working with primary and secondary learners (writing relevant problems, planning lessons, being attentive to student learning) and illustrate how knowledge can be accessed, assessed, and nurtured over the course of a teaching career. Commentaries provide context for current research while identifying areas deserving future study. Included among the topics:

• Teachers’ curricular knowledge
• Teachers’ personal and classroom mathematics
• Teachers’ learning journeys toward reasoning and sense-making
• Teachers’ transitions in noticing
• Teachers’ uses of a learning trajectory as a tool for mathematics lesson planning

A unique and timely set of perspectives on the professional development of mathematics teachers at all stages of their careers, Research Trends in Mathematics Teacher Education brings clarity and practical advice to researchers as well as practitioners in this increasingly critical arena.  

Dr. Jane-Jane Lo earned her doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in mathematics education from Florida State University under the direction of Grayson G. Wheatley.  She is an associate professor of mathematics education at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. She has a long-term research interest in studying the process of mathematical learning and concept development. This focus has been pursued in three complementary areas: rational number concepts, curriculum analysis, and international comparative studies both in the contexts of k-8 and teacher education.  She has published in both research and practitioner journals, including the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Educational Studies in Mathematics, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Teaching Children Mathematics, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, and Mathematics Teacher, and is on the editorial board for the International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. She, Laura Van Zoest and James Kratky co-edited the 2012 PME-NA conference proceedings.     

Dr. Keith Leatham earned a PhD in Mathematics Education at the University of Georgia and conducted his dissertation research under the direction of Tom Cooney. He is associate professor of mathematics education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he has been working since 2003. His research focuses on understanding how preservice teachers learn to facilitate student mathematics learning. In particular he studies how preservice teachers learn to use technology in teaching and learning mathematics, how they learn to recognize and use students’ mathematical thinking, and how their beliefs about mathematics, its teaching and learning are related to the teaching and learning-to-teach process.  He has published in both research and practitioner journals, including the Journal ofMathematics Teacher Education, Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, Instructional Science, Teaching Children Mathematics, and Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. He has been attending and presenting at PME-NA since 1998. He served as the associate editor for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education from 2004 to 2008 and currently serves on its editorial board.

Dr. Laura R. Van Zoest is a full professor of mathematics education at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She specializes in secondary mathematics teacher education, focusing specifically on the process of becoming an effective mathematics teacher and ways university coursework can accelerate that process. Lines of research have included investigating the effect of reform curriculum materials on teacher development, the use of practice-based materials in university methods courses, and the cultivation of productive norms in teacher education. Her current work involves developing a theory of productive use of student mathematical thinking. She has served as the principal investigator for research and professional development projects funded at over two million dollars. She has published in research and practitioner journals, including the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Teacher and Teacher Education, Mathematics Teacher Educator and the Mathematics Teacher. She was editor of Teachers Engaged in Research: Inquiry into Mathematics Practice, 9-12, and guest co-editor of the ZDM: The International Journal on Mathematics Education focus issue Theoretical frameworks in research on and with mathematics teachers.