RUME 25
2023
Omaha, Nebraska
How a Graduate Mathematics for Teachers Course “Helped Me See Things from a Different Perspective”
Page: 343
Secondary teachers and college instructors are required to take several graduate-level mathematics courses to advance in their careers. However, there is a common disconnect between graduate mathematics courses and the teaching of secondary mathematics. We developed a graduate-level mathematics for teachers course that was designed to help teachers connect abstract algebra, real analysis, and statistics to the content and teaching of secondary/ early college mathematics. In this study, we examined changes in graduate students’ confidence and perceptions of the relevance of advanced mathematics to teaching secondary and college mathematics. Students attributed changes in their perceptions of the connections between advanced and secondary mathematics to the course’s implementation of pedagogical scenario tasks. We provide implications for the mathematical preparation of teachers.