Thinking about our Methods syllabi…

Hi folks – Mike Steele here from the leadership team.  The recent AMTE Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics have sparked a lot of conversation and debate recently.  There are a number of ideas that I find to be intriguing and have sparked additional thinking on my part about how I organize my mathematics methods courses.  In particular, candidate standard C.4 on the Social Contexts of Mathematics, and Indicator C.3.3, Anticipate and Attend to Students’ Mathematical Dispositions stand out for me as areas in which I could personally strengthen my methods repertoire.  I wondered what messages I am (or am not) sending to my students about what it means to know and do mathematics, how we structure the learning opportunities with respect to mathematics and the teaching and learning of mathematics in our methods courses, and what changes I might consider making to provide a more transparent and coherent message.  When we discussed this matter as a leadership team, it was suggested that we perhaps take a look at our syllabi as a starting point for this work.  As such, I’m providing the syllabus for my fall course – essentially the ‘middle’ course in a three-course methods sequence at UWM – as sacrificial analytic fodder.  I’ll reflect a little bit about what I notice in this syllabus with the lenses of the Standards, as well as some comments about edTPA and state licensure.  I invite you all to comment and engage in further discussion using my syllabus as a starting point. Continue reading “Thinking about our Methods syllabi…”