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From: grant@psych.toronto.edu (Stuart Grant)
Subject: Re: Subtle Math Questions
Message-ID: <1991May2.133856.8338@psych.toronto.edu>
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
References: <2731@ttardis.UUCP> <1991Apr24.142835.26475@mccc.edu> <1991May1.192513.11714@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: Thu, 2 May 1991 13:38:56 GMT

>>I think you'll find that the majority of primary and secondary school
>>math teachers do not get their math education from a college's math
>>department in "regular" math courses but either from a regular college's
>>math department's special math courses for wannabes, OR from the math
>>departments of teachers colleges!!  :-(  In either case, the students
>>are not expected to learn much math at all.  (My ex-wife is now a HS
>>math teacher and her education matches the "ed major" model implied above.)

I agree that watered down courses in which students are not expected to learn
are not much use to anyone. However, I don't think that this is 
the biggest problem with the math instruction in primary and secondary
schools. _Any_ math course taught at a college or university will be at  
least as sophisticated as what teachers will be teaching in primary and
secondary schools. Not knowing how to do differential equations is not
the greatest problem math teachers have.

Calling the education faculty math courses wimpy, and making math teachers
take "regular" math courses is not the answer. The quality of math 
instruction will improve if teachers are given more training in the 
teaching of math. Teaching math is difficult, Motivating students and
getting across abstract concepts that the students have not used before
is, I believe, the greatest difficulty.

So, I think math instruction can be best improved not by teaching the 
teachers more math, but by giving them more teaching skills, including
additinal training in how to teach math.