Are they ready? : a study about preservice mathematics teachers' education in Costa Rica

Abstract

The knowledge, professional skills and beliefs of mathematics teachers significantly influence their quality of teaching. Teacher education programs (TEPs) offer pre- service teachers (PSTs) opportunities to acquire the knowledge and competencies they need to teach effectively. In Costa Rica, however, little is known about mathematics TEP content, quality, and outcomes, and there are no selection processes that assess the knowledge and aptitudes of teachers before they are hired. Recent reports have urged universities to update their TEPs to address the deficiencies observed in in-service teachers. This study reports on the characteristics of the mathematics TEPs in Costa Rica by investigating the TEP contents and teaching methods, the beliefs on mathematics education by the PSTs and teacher educators, and the relevant knowledge and competencies of the pre-service mathematics teachers at the end of their studies. The knowledge necessary for teaching mathematics has been studied by different theoretical frameworks (e.g., Ball et al., 2008; Carrillo et al, 2018) which consider the knowledge categories defined by Shulman (1986) about content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. However, professional competence in mathematics is integrated by the cognitive abilities and the affective-motivational characteristics. In this study the cognitive abilities component is approached with the Knowledge for Teaching Mathematics framework (Tatto et al, 2008) informed by Shulman’s (1986) categories of CK, PCK and general pedagogical knowledge. In addition, the affective component is studied considering the beliefs about the nature of mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning. The results of this dissertation are informed by qualitative and quantitative data, collected using the instruments of Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) international study. The study was conducted in Costa Rica during automs 2019 with participants...