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Mathematics education independent study.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

A pre-elementary education student at West Virginia University completed an independent study on mathematics anxiety, which included reading research articles, keeping a journal, completing a research project, and writing a paper. This article will discuss details of the project and results from a survey that the student completed. In particular, the researchers found that writing a paper incorporating reviews of research articles relevant to the student was especially beneficial. However, this research supports recommendations that students need a support system before beginning similar projects.

Introduction

There have been calls for change in teacher education. For example, Nyaumwe, Mtetwa, and Brown (2005) open a debate about effective mentoring of preservice teachers. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) states that "effective teaching requires knowing and understanding mathematics, students as learners, and pedagogical strategies" (2000). Furthermore, other research highlights the critical role of content knowledge, pedagogy knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge in developing mathematics understanding (Fennema, & Franke, 1992). In addition, Wu (2004) suggests that professional development of teachers that includes pedagogical content knowledge is necessary for effective teaching. Efforts have been made to define exactly what should be included in preservice teacher education. Mohr (2006) describes current research on the subject and suggests that teacher preparation should be grade specific.

Recently, there has been a push to include mathematics education research in the preparation of teachers. For example, the NCTM professional guidelines (2000) state that preservice education teachers should learn about mathematics education research and methods to ensure continued study of mathematics for students of all backgrounds. Research by D'Ambrosio and Campos (1992) shows that encouraging prospective teachers to reflect on research about students' learning helps the teachers to be more sensitive to the needs of students and to assess students' understanding. Meel (2002) states that understanding students' difficulties "... affects the choices a teacher makes about what...

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