Preservice elementary teachers tend to have higher mathematics anxiety than other undergraduate majors, which can be mitigated through building self-efficacy. Teacher education programs can address this deficit through methods courses that provide opportunities for preservice teachers to construct mathematical concepts and practice instruction.…

Lesson study, a popular method of professional development in which instructors collaborate to critique and improve a lesson, can be used for curriculum development. This paper describes an implementation of lesson study that went through two iterations across different, related, contexts: an undergraduate mathematics content course for secondary…

This article describes reflections of two mathematicians and a mathematics teacher educator who collaborated on the development and implementation of courses (probability and statistics connections, number concept connections, and middle school mathematics methods) for middle school mathematics preservice teachers. The instructors of the courses,…

Preparing students placing into developmental mathematics for success in undergraduate mathematics and preparing future teachers for the increasing demands of K-12 school settings are both persistent, yet seemingly divergent, problems facing higher education. In this paper, we shed light on a model that attempts to address aspects of each problem…

Future teachers often claim that advanced undergraduate courses, even those that attempt to connect to school mathematics, are not useful for their teaching. This paper proposes a new way of designing advanced undergraduate content courses for secondary teachers. The model involves beginning with an analysis of the curriculum and practices of…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical technique recommended for K-12 mathematics classrooms. However, the mathematics courses in future teachers' degree programs are often lecture based. Students typically learn about problem-based learning in theory, but rarely get to experience it first-hand in their mathematics courses. The premise…

Researchers and mathematics educators are trying to understand which learning experiences will help pre-service secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) be successful in the classroom. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the understanding of educational experiences that will lead to PSMTs, learning practices for teaching secondary…

In this paper we discuss a variety of writing, reading and assessment techniques used in an elementary problem-solving class for pre-service K-8 teachers at Western Oregon University. We share our experience in teaching problem-solving strategies through selection and creation of quality word problems, problem-solving assessment and the Oregon…

The Departments of Mathematics and Statistics at Grand Valley State University are engaged in a project to address the mathematical preparation of all its majors, including prospective elementary and secondary mathematics teachers. In this article, we describe how the mathematics and mathematics education faculty in our mathematics department…