Mathematical and didactic knowledge for teaching and the idea of SRP-TEs

Speaker :

Reinhard Hochmuth, Leibniz U. Hannover

Abstract :  

The university education of future maths teachers raises the following questions: What mathematical content should be taught and how should it be taught in view of their future professsional tasks?  A specific goal of efforts to improve educational outcomes is to bring mathematical knowledge to life not only in the sense of the "Paradigm of Visiting Monuments", but also in the sense of "Questioning the World". The idea of SRP-TEs addresses both theoretical and conceptual issues as well as methodological and didactic considerations directed towards this goal, which also take institutional conditions and constraints into account.

 In a joint project with Jana Peters SRP-TE ideas are adapted addressing the following related issue in university subject-didactic teacher education: Observations show a prevailing separation between (school) mathematical and didactic-methodological considerations in the development and reflection of lesson plans and the respective subject matter analyses.  Apart from difficulties with the subject matter, students find it particularly difficult to treat the mathematical content in such a way that methodical and didactic reflections are built on it.  

The presentation will report on a recent intervention aimed at supporting students in lesson planning by providing ATD tools for modelling school mathematics.  In particular, the following questions will be addressed: How can specific activities in university courses be designed to sensitise student teachers to naturalisations of mathematical content in lesson planning that hinder the explication and development of connections between (school) mathematical and didactic-methodological considerations? To what extent do stimulated ATD-based activities and reflections seem to be a first step towards overcoming the obstacles?  What are institutional and societal  limitations and spaces of possibilities for the design and realisation of such interventions?