Development of mathematics teacher education curriculum: Balancing the universal and cultural

• Main Authors: Elipane, Levi Esteban, Ninomiya, Hiro
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2007
• Subjects: Mathematics teachers—Training of; Science and Mathematics Education; Teacher Education and Professional Development
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/4962
• Institution: De La Salle University

In the face of educational reform movements, the responsibilities of various teacher training institutions in providing mathematics teacher education programs would inevitably appear to be more problematic. As standards have served as a basis for education reform brought about by the call of various educational stakeholders for a clearer definition of what students must be able to know and must be able to do, and also by the public's demand for accountability, bodies of research about considering the social dimension in the development and implementation of curriculum have also been gaining much attention in the field. Hence, as the term 'standards' is usually considered universal, and the concept of social dimension is customarily linked to the idea of a culture in a certain locality, meticulous considerations must be done in order to achieve the balance in the process of developing the curriculum for mathematics teacher education. This paper is a narrative (or short oral) that aims to: 1) define standards and standards-based curriculum; 2) discuss on standard-based education; 3) discuss on teaching as a cultural activity; 4) draw implications of standards and the social dimension for the development of mathematics teacher education curriculum; and 5) propose a framework for developing a standard-based curriculum. The implications drawn from the discussion in the paper touched on the different levels of social dimension that might inform how balance may be ensured with the commencement of the development of the standards and standard based curriculum for mathematics teacher education. Implications for the misconception on closely associating the notion of standardized test and high stakes assessments with the concept of standards were also tackled. And finally, the implication for the involvement of various stakeholders, especially the teachers (curriculum enactors), was emphasized as an imperative for the success of the development of the standard-based mathematics teacher education curriculum.