1. Richard Bisk Professor Emeritus Mathematics Worcester State University
Focusing on Elementary Teacher Math Preparation at a Small Public University
Richard Bisk
Professor Emeritus Mathematics
Worcester State University

2. Moved to WSU
Youngest member of department. Soon I was one of the oldest. Department Chair

3. 2001: two-course sequence for prospective elementary majors
2001: two-course sequence for prospective elementary majors. 2017: three-course sequence required for elementary majors. 2014: new Mathematics for Elementary Education (MEE) major.

4. 2001: Only one math faculty member interested in teaching these courses. 2017: Five of twelve math faculty are involved.

5. 2007
MassBOE (now BESE) implemented new requirements for elementary certification. The key change was a separate math exam that candidates needed to pass before earning certification. In addition, MassDOE published a guidelines that “highlight the breadth and depth of mathematics that teachers at the elementary level must not only be able to do, but understand and explain in many ways to students.”

6. Required Courses Elementary Education Major
MA 130: Number and Operations for Teachers
MA 131: Patterns, Functions and Algebra for Teachers
MA 132: Geometry, Measurement, Probability and Statistics for Teachers

7. Requirements for the MEE Major: 33 math credits and 12 education credits
MA 130 Numbers and Operations for Teachers
MA 131 Patterns, Relations, Functions and Algebra for Teachers
MA 132 Geometry, Measurement, Statistics and Probability for Teachers
MA 190 Precalculus
MA 200 Calculus I
MA 201 Calculus II
MA 240 Theory of Proof
MA 302 Probability and Statistics
MA 303 Mathematical Modeling
MA 360 Number Theory
ED 425 Seminar: Applying Educational Principles
ED 435 Student Teaching in Elementary School

8. Catalog*
MA 130 Number and Operations for Teachers Develops understanding of the mathematical content of number and operations at the deep level required for successful elementary and middle school teaching.
* There’s a 20-word limit. They trust our counting!

9. Course Description – My Syllabus
The primary goal of this course is to deepen your understanding of the number and operations strand of K-8 mathematics. Strengthening your understanding will help you to be more effective as a teacher. The course will provide a careful, mathematically accurate development of arithmetic and help you teach the subject in a coherent meaningful way. Mathematics has a structure that is logical. Everything has a reason. Understanding math well is the key to being able to teach it well.

10. Course Description – My Syllabus
This course will make explicit connections to the Common Core State Standards. “The standards stress not only procedural skill but also conceptual understanding, to make sure students are learning and absorbing the critical information they need to succeed at higher levels - rather than the current practices by which many students learn enough to get by on the next test, but forget it shortly thereafter, only to review again the following year.”

11. Student Learning Outcomes - Students will be able to:
Justify their mathematical reasoning verbally, symbolically and in writing.
Understand the number system and the concept of place value. This includes the role of place value in algorithms, the use of expanded notation, and computations in different number bases.
Understand operations on numbers, including definitions, interpretations and models (e.g. number lines, area model.) Students will be fluent in arithmetic computations, including those involving fractions, and be able to explain why arithmetic algorithms work.
Understand the associative, commutative and distributive properties, and use these properties to perform mental math computations.
-language in red is from the Massachusetts state test objective for elementary certification.

12. Student Learning Outcomes - Students will be able to:
Use various techniques (including model drawing) to solve word problems involving whole numbers, fractions, ratios and percents.
Perform simple estimation and apply estimation to the solution of real-world problems.
Understand and apply principles of number theory. This includes: write simple proofs using logic and precise definitions; understand the Fundamental Theorem of arithmetic; apply tests for primality; perform various techniques for computing the greatest common factor (GCF) and least common multiple (LCM); apply the GCF and LCM to solve real-world problems.
Understand integers, fractions, decimals, percents and mixed numbers and recognize how the rules of arithmetic apply to all of them.

13. Challenges Weak math backgrounds of many elementary majors.
Math Anxiety. Many choose elementary education because they don’t like math. Don’t believe they need to understand math to teach it.
Perseverance in problem solving.
Many not able to communicate math effectively (or even correctly) when student teaching.

14. Strengths
Use of Singapore primary texts in MA 130 and 132 to connect teacher level understanding to classroom practice.
MA 131 allows a semester to focus on the connection between arithmetic and algebra.
Some MEE majors graduate with strong math backgrounds and have leadership potential in their schools.