Article

Long-Term Relationships Between Mathematics Instructional Time During Teacher Preparation and Specialized Content Knowledge

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Abstract

We investigated how the time elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) spent studying certain mathematics topics during teacher education coursework was related to performance on teaching-related tasks administered after graduation. In two studies, participants completed tasks assessing their specialized content knowledge (SCK) for teaching 12 mathematical topics addressed to varying degrees in the preparation program. We found that instructional time was positively associated with SCK demonstrated both immediately postgraduation and 2 years later. Several possible confounding factors were assessed; one, entering PSTs’ average SCK for topics, appeared to influence the relationship. Accounting for professional learning postgraduation, such as attending professional development, did not change the underlying relationship. Considering these findings, we identify policy implications for the mathematics curriculum of PST education.

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... Building on both of the aforementioned studies [47,48], Corven, DiNapoli, Willoughby, and Hiebert [49] examined the relationship between the number of instructional minutes dedicated to mathematics topics in teacher preparation and the specialized content knowledge demonstrated by program graduates years later. These researchers leveraged both the lesson planning task [47] and specialized content knowledge task [48], as well as used a more precise measure of instructional time across all mathematical topics (minutes). ...
... Research shows that PSTs can develop and retain mathematical understandings by devoting more time to studying fewer topics [47][48][49], but little is known about other outcome measures related to PSTs, including the development of mathematical practices like perseverance in problem-solving. Perseverance, or initiating and sustaining productive struggle in the face of obstacles [56], promotes sensemaking with mathematical ideas [57][58][59][60]. ...
... Collectively, these studies help inform a knowledge base about the benefits of allocating more time to fewer mathematics topics during elementary teacher preparation content courses. This research shows that not only do such course designs support future teachers in developing specialized content knowledge that they can remember and apply years later in their classrooms [47][48][49], but these course designs also support future teachers in developing important mathematical practices, like perseverance in problem-solving, which will aid them in empathizing with and supporting their future students to productively struggle to learn mathematics [4,52]. These collective findings challenge the knowledge-oriented approach to elementary mathematics teacher preparation [14], specifically those programs that utilize survey courses to prepare PSTs to teach K-8 mathematics. ...
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This study investigated how the time that elementary pre-service teachers (PSTs) spend studying certain mathematics topics during a content course is related to growth in their perseverance in problem-solving. Using a quasi-experimental design, PSTs from two classes taught by the same instructor engaged in 12 problem-solving sessions each to measure their willingness to initiate and sustain, and re-initiate and re-sustain upon an impasse, productive struggle during engagement. Inspired by the thinking-oriented and knowledge-oriented theoretical approaches to teacher preparation in elementary mathematics, there were two class conditions. Over one semester, the treatment group studied five mathematics topics (averaging about 400 min of classroom time per topic) and the control group studied 10 mathematics topics (averaging about 150 min of classroom time per topic). The results show that the perseverance of PSTs in problem-solving in the treatment group grew at a significantly greater rate compared to PSTs in the control group. This suggests that PSTs’ perseverance development may be supported by spending more classroom time studying fewer topics during mathematics content courses.
... First, we reviewed survey literature on mathematics content courses for elementary teachers, in part to show the high variability of teacher preparation programs in the United States (Masingila & Olanoff, 2022;Masingila et al., 2012). Next, we discussed results from a longitudinal study investigating the relationship between the number of instructional minutes on mathematics topics in teacher preparation and the specialized content knowledge (SCK; Ball et al., 2008) program graduates demonstrated for those topics (Corven et al., 2022). We emphasized a finding that implies the importance of spending ample instructional time on mathematics topics during elementary teacher preparation in order for teachers to remember and apply their knowledge of those topics years later, in their teaching. ...
... Group co-leaders: Joseph DiNapoli, Valerie Long, and Jennifer Tobias This research area investigates the affordances and constraints related to the instructional time spent (or not spent) on specific mathematics topics included in content courses for prospective elementary teachers. Recent research has shown that instructional time on specific topics in teacher preparation mathematics content courses matters for the development of SCK that is retained and demonstrated post-graduation, as former PTs begin careers as elementary educators in real classrooms (Corven et al., 2022). Further, this longitudinal study suggests that survey courses, which spend small amounts of instructional time on many mathematical topics, may have little or no impact on future teachers' retention and use of SCK. ...
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In this article we discuss efforts to design and empirically test measures of teachers' content knowledge for teaching elementary mathematics. We begin by reviewing the literature on teacher knowledge, noting how scholars have organized such knowledge. Next we describe survey items we wrote to represent knowledge for teaching mathematics and results from factor analysis and scaling work with these items. We found that teachers' knowledge for teaching elementary mathematics was multidimensional and included knowledge of various mathematical topics (e.g., number and operations, algebra) and domains (e.g., knowledge of content, knowledge of students and content). The constructs indicated by factor analysis formed psychometrically acceptable scales.
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This study explored whether and how teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching contributes to gains in students' mathematics achievement. The authors used a linear mixed-model methodology in which first and third graders' mathematical achievement gains over a year were nested within teachers, who in turn were nested within schools. They found that teachers' mathematical knowledge was significantly related to student achievement gains in both first and third grades after controlling for key student-and teacher-level covariates. This result, while consonant with findings from the educational production function literature, was obtained via a measure focusing on the specialized mathematical knowledge and skills used in teach-ing mathematics. This finding provides support for policy initiatives designed to improve students' mathematics achievement by improving teachers' math-ematical knowledge.