Book Description

Twenty years ago no professional training of university grade existed in this country to prepare teachers of mathematics for secondary schools. At that time the young teacher's sole preparation for his work was the taking of as many academic courses in mathematics as possible, plus, in some instances, a course on the history of education or some lectures on general pedagogy. On graduation he had had no observation of skillful teaching in secondary mathematics, no practice work, no survey of secondary mathematics from a higher and pedagogic standpoint, and no knowledge of the best literature dealing with the teaching of algebra and geometry in this country or abroad. He gained all his experience in the classroom, and, if progressive, he also acquired a certain pedagogic equipment from private reading and from teachers' associations; if not, his point of view on questions of teaching remained narrow, as is always the case when one fails to come into contact with what others are doing in his field of work. A general interest in the professional preparation of teachers for secondary, education, which is now being shown in many American colleges and universities, has led to a feeling on the part of a number of institutions that teaching must be recognized as a profession, and that training for it must be as formal and definite as for law, medicine, or engineering. This has resulted in the establishment at a number of universities of schools of education, each with a formal organization and a separate faculty, these being considered as professional schools and as such ranking, in general, with the schools of law, medicine, and engineering. In these schools attention has been given particularly to preparation for secondary teaching, as the various State normal schools have, in general, solved the problem of preparing teachers for the elementary schools. As far as mathematics is concerned, it is the aim of these colleges of education to prepare teachers and supervisors of mathematics for public and private high schools. Some of these institutions also have facilities for equipping teachers of mathematics for departmental work in elementary schools and instructors in methods in mathematics for normal schools. This bulletin provides reports from four subcommittees that addressed the topic of the training of teachers of elementary and secondary mathematics: (1) Subcommittee 1: The training of teachers of mathematics in professional schools of collegiate grade, separate from or connected with colleges or universities; (2) Subcommittee 2: State normal schools; (3) Subcommittee 3: Private normal schools; and (4) Subcommittee 4: Teachers for normal schools. (Contains 11 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.].