Introduction

Abstract

The topic survey on the education of prospective secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) provides significant new trends and development in research and practices related to aspects of preparing PSMTs from 2005 – 2015. An overview of the current state-of-the-art and recent research reports from an international perspective are provided. The development of PSMTs’ mathematics content and pedagogical content knowledge, the emergence of PSMTs’ professional identities, PSMTs’ field experiences, and the impact of the increasing availability of various technological devices and resources on preparing PSMTs are discussed. The authors conducted a thorough review of the literature by examining major journals in the field of mathematics education and some well-known cross country studies. In the report, dominant methodologies and theoretical perspectives are addressed as well as main findings to indicate current trends.

The topic study group on the mathematics education of prospective secondary teachers is dedicated to sharing and discussing significant new trends and developments in research and practices related to various aspects of the education of prospective secondary mathematics teachers from an international perspective. As Ponte and Chapman (2016) stated, teacher education is an area in which, although we have developed an understanding about the process of becoming a teacher, many questions still remain open. Our goal in this topic group is to address some of these questions. We discuss major areas in the field, including the nature and structure of teachers’ knowledge and its development, models and routes of mathematics teacher education, development of professional identities as prospective mathematics teachers, field experiences and their impact on prospective secondary mathematics teachers’ development of the craft of teaching, and use of various technological devices and resources in preparing prospective secondary mathematics teachers. To facilitate the discussion of these issues, the authors of this survey conducted a systematic literature review of studies published in nine international mathematics education research journals¹ during the last decade focused on the following four areas:

• Teacher Knowledge. Addressing the nature of prospective mathematics teacher knowledge, theoretical and methodological perspectives, relationship between teacher knowledge, teaching practice, and students’ learning as well as the process of prospective teachers’ knowledge development in teacher education programs.

• Technologies, Tools and Resources. Comparing and synthesizing studies on how prospective mathematics teachers develop knowledge that relates technology, pedagogy and content knowledge.

• Teachers’ Professional Identities. Synthesizing research findings on the conceptualization of teacher professional identities, the development of teacher identity through pre-service course work and field experiences.

• Field Experiences. Synthesizing and discussing research findings on models; mechanisms; roles of prospective teachers, cooperating teachers, and university supervisors; and field experiences.

More details about the methodology adopted for the review are given in the report of each area.