Secondary Mathematics Methods Courses: What Do We Value?

Mathematics teacher education has been criticized, both internally and externally, for failing to identify shared practices and goals within teacher preparation programs. Work has begun to address this criticism at the elementary level but less exists at the secondary level. This paper reports on a national survey with responses from 116 secondary mathematics methods course instructors from colleges and universities. The purpose of the survey was to identify those topics, or "touchstones," in secondary methods courses that are widely valued. The survey asked participants to rank 41 potential "touchstones" of secondary mathematics methods courses on a scale from one to five according to those touchstones they value most in their methods courses. The results were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed looking for important characteristics that would spur discussion about shared goals in secondary teacher preparation. [For the complete proceedings, see ED583989.]