| dc.description.abstract | The knowledge, professional skills and beliefs of mathematics teachers significantly
influence their quality of teaching. Teacher education programs (TEPs) offer pre service teachers (PSTs) opportunities to acquire the knowledge and competencies
they need to teach effectively. In Costa Rica, however, little is known about
mathematics TEP content, quality, and outcomes, and there are no selection
processes that assess the knowledge and aptitudes of teachers before they are hired.
Recent reports have urged universities to update their TEPs to address the
deficiencies observed in in-service teachers. This study reports on the characteristics
of the mathematics TEPs in Costa Rica by investigating the TEP contents and
teaching methods, the beliefs on mathematics education by the PSTs and teacher
educators, and the relevant knowledge and competencies of the pre-service
mathematics teachers at the end of their studies.
The knowledge necessary for teaching mathematics has been studied by different
theoretical frameworks (e.g., Ball et al., 2008; Carrillo et al, 2018) which consider the
knowledge categories defined by Shulman (1986) about content knowledge and
pedagogical content knowledge. However, professional competence in mathematics
is integrated by the cognitive abilities and the affective-motivational characteristics.
In this study the cognitive abilities component is approached with the Knowledge
for Teaching Mathematics framework (Tatto et al, 2008) informed by Shulman’s
(1986) categories of CK, PCK and general pedagogical knowledge. In addition, the
affective component is studied considering the beliefs about the nature of
mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning.
The results of this dissertation are informed by qualitative and quantitative data,
collected using the instruments of Teacher Education and Development Study in
Mathematics (TEDS-M) international study. The study was conducted in Costa Rica
during autumn 2019 with participants from three public universities. In total, 80
future mathematics teachers in their last year of preparation and 19 teacher trainers
collaborated as participants. Data from preservice teachers was collected using a
paper-and-pencil questionnaire, while teacher educators answered an online
questionnaire. The statistical analysis of the learning opportunities, the beliefs, and
the performance of the participants in the items, was complemented with a content
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analysis of the solutions to the items to have a more holistic understanding of the
question under study.
The results showed that the TEPs taught more tertiary-level mathematics subject
matter topics than mathematics education and general pedagogy topics using various
methods such as lectures, pre-service teacher presentations, reading of related
research, and solving math problems. They also taught instructional planning and
assessment, but little critical and reflective skills to serve students from different
backgrounds or to offer meaningful feedback. The TEPs trained PSTs well in
applying skills but poorly in reasoning. In addition, significant weaknesses were
observed in participants’ monitoring of their own work and in modeling solution
strategies and connecting results for solving problems. Moreover, the PSTs and
teacher educators had dynamic constructivist beliefs but neglected teacher-centered
practices and mathematics as a set of rules and procedures. Besides, they believe that
mathematics can be learned by everyone despite of their culture, gender, or
background.
This study revealed differences in the way TEPs distribute their topics and the
teaching methods experiences they offer. Differences were also found in the
performance of the preservice teachers at the different universities, especially in the
items of mathematical content knowledge, although the number of the topics studied
was not correlated with the participants' performance.
This research has several contributions. First, it contributes to the knowledge gap
about preservice mathematics teachers in Costa Rica, providing insights about where
they stand at the end of their preparation programs, regarding knowledge and
competencies for teaching mathematics, and what needs to be improved. It also
reaffirms previous results about differences in TEPs but goes further pointing out
how those differences are evident in the opportunities to learn and the preservice
teachers’ knowledge. The study also makes visible the preservice teachers and
teacher educators’ beliefs about mathematics nature, mathematics teaching, and
achievement, which have been understudied in Costa Rica and Latin America. | es_ES |
