Mathematics Education Project

A Problem and Reasoning Based Curriculum for Preservice Elementary Educators:
Understanding Mathematics Deeply for Teaching

The Understanding Mathematics Deeply for Teaching Project addresses the need for improved mathematics courses for future elementary teachers.  The project will create four instructional units on CDs each with detailed lesson guides and an assessment package constituting the core of an exemplary, replicable model for teacher education.

Intellectual Merit: The units will be constructed from exemplary problem- and reasoning-based elementary and middle school curricula and from research on mathematics learning.  The school curricula will be adapted in several ways: (1) the level of challenge of activities will be scaled up, (2) activities will focus on major ideas that are highly connected to many other fundamental ideas, and (3) relationships among ideas will be emphasized.  The project will address difficulties experienced by future elementary teachers: shallow mathematics learning, weak reasoning and communication skills, and unproductive disposition such as lack of confidence, lack of persistence, reluctance to share their thinking.  The project will also address difficulties experienced by instructors of these courses:  inappropriate materials and insufficient information about student thinking, e.g., their misconceptions, underdeveloped concepts, or insights.  Advisors, including authors of the original exemplary materials, will evaluate the curriculum and give guidance.

Broad Impact: The units will form the first four of nine units used in three courses required of all elementary educators at University of Michigan-Dearborn and will be used by instructors at public, private, and community colleges.  Those initial users will provide feedback on the development of the materials.  The project has the potential to create a 9-credit sequence that is widely usable.