Meaningful Integration of Mathematics Methods Instruction and Field Experience

Abstract

Preservice early childhood education majors at the University of Georgia are involved in afield experience in conjunction with their first mathematics methods course. The field experience involves one-on-one work with a child for 45 minutes each week for seven weeh. The intent of the field experience is to give the preservice teachers an opportunity to attend to children k mathematical thinking in a setting in which classroom management and curriculum management concerns are minimal. The design of the field experience is described and the outcomes for preservice teachers, children, and teacher educators are documented.

Practices and Innovations in Australian Science Teacher Education Programs

“…In several programs, students were required to teach a sequence of science or science/technology lessons to children in schools, and interviewees stated that the advantages of doing this were that: it ensured that students had a genuine opportunity to teach science and technology (as many classroom teachers did not necessarily include it in their regular programs); it helped to create good pedagogical partnerships with schools; the school experiences helped to make the courses popular with students; and it allowed students to practise innovative teaching strategies. This finding agrees with other studies which have argued the positive value of these types of experiences for teacher education (Mewborn 2000). In one program, the science method courses were offered in school-based mode, in which workshops were held in schools and students worked with small groups of children to practise the techniques.…”