Introducing an Elective Mathematics Education Course for Mathematics Majors

ABSTRACT

Mathematics education faculty working in mathematics departments are commonly involved in teaching undergraduate mathematics courses, teaching and supervising postgraduate students of mathematics education, and developing mathematics teachers (pre-service and/or in-service). This paper proposes a new elective course that can be taken by either undergraduate mathematics majors or by graduate teaching assistants pursuing degrees in mathematics and teaching undergraduates themselves. Twenty-eight topics are suggested, and the rationale for each is briefly described. Offering such a course provides different opportunities for students; for example, familiarizing them with effective ways to teach and learn mathematics, which has the potential to improve their effectiveness as tutors within the department. A similar course has been successfully taught to undergraduate students majoring in mathematics at an Iranian university for nearly two decades.

KEYWORDS:

• Mathematics education course
• mathematics major
• undergraduate students
• mathematics education faculty

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to thank Dr. Igor Kontorovich for his interest in our paper and his constructive feedback on the first draft.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 This book was written by the mathematics education faculty who joined the Iranian university around two decades ago.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Farzad Radmehr

Farzad Radmehr has two Ph.Ds in mathematics education from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and Victoria University of Wellington. Currently, he is an associate professor of mathematics education at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Radmehr is involved in the teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate mathematics education courses and introductory undergraduate mathematics courses. He is interested in improving the teaching and learning of mathematics at upper secondary and tertiary levels.

Mahboubeh Nedaei

Mahboubeh Nedaei has a master's degree in mathematics education from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, where she is involved in tutoring for undergraduate mathematics courses. Her research interests include investigating how problem posing could be used to improve the teaching, learning, and assessment of mathematics.

Michael Drake

Michael Drake is a senior lecturer of mathematics education at the School of Education at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand. He is the lecturer and course coordinator of several mathematics education courses in the primary and secondary pre-service mathematics education programmes at VUW. Michael is interested in developing mathematical understanding of students in the middle years of schooling (years 5–11) and effective pedagogies in mathematics education.