This book provides a theoretical basis and practical strategies to counter resistance to learning to teach for diversity (in culturally and gender-inclusive ways), and resistance to teaching for understanding (using student-centered and inquiry-based pedagogical approaches). Teacher educators from across the United States present rich narratives of their experiences in helping prospective and practicing teachers learn to teach for diversity and for understanding in a variety of mathematics and science contexts. Mathematics and science education has been slow to respond to issues of diversity and equity. Preparing Mathematics and Science Teachers for Diverse Classrooms: Promising Strategies for Transformative Pedagogy helps to begin a network for support and collaboration among teacher educators in science and mathematics who work for multicultural education and equity. A unique and much-needed contribution, this book is an essential resource for teacher educators, K-12 teachers who work as student teacher supervisors and cooperating teachers, and graduate students in mathematics and science education, and a compelling text for science and mathematics methods courses.

This book provides a theoretical basis and practical strategies to counter resistance to learning to teach for diversity (in culturally and gender-inclusive ways), and resistance to teaching for understanding (using student-centered and inquiry-based pedagogical approaches). Teacher educators from across the United States present rich narratives of their experiences in helping prospective and practicing teachers learn to teach for diversity and for understanding in a variety of mathematics and science contexts. Mathematics and science education has been slow to respond to issues of diversity and equity. Preparing Mathematics and Science Teachers for Diverse Classrooms: Promising Strategies for Transformative Pedagogy helps to begin a network for support and collaboration among teacher educators in science and mathematics who work for multicultural education and equity. A unique and much-needed contribution, this book is an essential resource for teacher educators, K-12 teachers who work as student teacher supervisors and cooperating teachers, and graduate students in mathematics and science education, and a compelling text for science and mathematics methods courses.

Teachers make a difference. The success of any plan for improving educational outcomes depends on the teachers who carry it out and thus on the abilities of those attracted to the field and their preparation. Yet there are many questions about how teachers are being prepared and how they ought to be prepared. Yet, teacher preparation is often treated as an afterthought in discussions of improving the public education system. Preparing Teachers addresses the issue of teacher preparation with specific attention to reading, mathematics, and science. The book evaluates the characteristics of the candidates who enter teacher preparation programs, the sorts of instruction and experiences teacher candidates receive in preparation programs, and the extent that the required instruction and experiences are consistent with converging scientific evidence. Preparing Teachers also identifies a need for a data collection model to provide valid and reliable information about the content knowledge, pedagogical competence, and effectiveness of graduates from the various kinds of teacher preparation programs. Federal and state policy makers need reliable, outcomes-based information to make sound decisions, and teacher educators need to know how best to contribute to the development of effective teachers. Clearer understanding of the content and character of effective teacher preparation is critical to improving it and to ensuring that the same critiques and questions are not being repeated 10 years from now.

Currently, many states are adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or are revising their own state standards in ways that reflect the NGSS. For students and schools, the implementation of any science standards rests with teachers. For those teachers, an evolving understanding about how best to teach science represents a significant transition in the way science is currently taught in most classrooms and it will require most science teachers to change how they teach. That change will require learning opportunities for teachers that reinforce and expand their knowledge of the major ideas and concepts in science, their familiarity with a range of instructional strategies, and the skills to implement those strategies in the classroom. Providing these kinds of learning opportunities in turn will require profound changes to current approaches to supporting teachers' learning across their careers, from their initial training to continuing professional development. A teacher's capability to improve students' scientific understanding is heavily influenced by the school and district in which they work, the community in which the school is located, and the larger professional communities to which they belong. Science Teachers' Learning provides guidance for schools and districts on how best to support teachers' learning and how to implement successful programs for professional development. This report makes actionable recommendations for science teachers' learning that take a broad view of what is known about science education, how and when teachers learn, and education policies that directly and indirectly shape what teachers are able to learn and teach. The challenge of developing the expertise teachers need to implement the NGSS presents an opportunity to rethink professional learning for science teachers. Science Teachers' Learning will be a valuable resource for classrooms, departments, schools, districts, and professional organizations as they move to new ways to teach science.

Each new headline about American students' poor performance in math and science leads to new calls for reform in teaching. Education Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology puts the whole picture together by synthesizing what we know about the quality of math and science teaching, drawing conclusions about why teacher preparation needs reform, and then outlining recommendations for accomplishing the most important goals before us. As a framework for addressing the task, the book advocates partnerships among school districts, colleges, and universities, with contributions from scientists, mathematicians, teacher educators, and teachers. It then looks carefully at the status of the education reform movement and explores the motives for raising the bar for how well teachers teach and how well students learn. Also examined are important issues in teacher professionalism: what teachers should be taught about their subjects, the utility of in-service education, the challenge of program funding, and the merits of credentialing. Professional Development Schools are reviewed and vignettes presented that describe exemplary teacher development practices.

This critical examination of policies and practices in bilingual and ESL teacher preparation focuses on understanding the structural, substantive, and contextual elements of preparation programs and provides transformative guidelines for creating signature programs.

Also available in a black + white version AMTE, in the Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics (SPTM), puts forward a national vision of initial preparation for all Pre-K–12 teachers who teach mathematics. SPTM contains critical messages for all who teach mathematics, including elementary school teachers teaching all disciplines, middle and high school mathematics teachers who may teach mathematics exclusively, special education teachers, teachers of emergent multilingual students, and other teaching professionals and administrators who have responsibility for students’ mathematical learning. SPTM has broad implications for teacher preparation programs, in which stakeholders include faculty and administrators in both education and mathematics at the university level; teachers, principals, and district leaders in the schools with which preparation programs partner; and the communities in which preparation programs and their school partners are situated. SPTM is intended as a national guide that articulates a vision for mathematics teacher preparation and supports the continuous improvement of teacher preparation programs. Such continuous improvement includes changes to preparation program courses and structures, partnerships involving schools and universities and their leaders, the ongoing accreditation of such programs regionally and nationally, and the shaping of state and national mathematics teacher preparation policy. SPTM is also designed to inform assessment practices for mathematics teacher preparation programs, to influence policies related to preparation of teachers of mathematics, and to promote national dialogue around preparing teachers of mathematics. The vision articulated in SPTM is aspirational in that it describes a set of high expectations for developing a well-prepared beginning teacher of mathematics who can support meaningful student learning. The vision is research-based and establishes a set of goals for the continued development and refinement of a mathematics teacher preparation program and a research agenda for the study of the effects of such a program. SPTM contains detailed depictions of what a well-prepared beginning teacher knows and is able to do related to content, pedagogy, and disposition, and what a strong preparation program entails with respect to learning experiences, assessments, and partnerships. Stakeholders in mathematics teacher preparation will find messages related to their roles. Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics includes standards and indicators for teacher candidates and for the design of teacher preparation programs. SPTM outlines assessment practices related to overall quality, program effectiveness, and candidate performance. SPTM describes specific focal practices by grade band and provides guidance to stakeholders regarding processes for productive change.