Middle School Education Programs: How Specialized Should They Be?

Many of the presentations at the first conference of the MIDDLE MATH Project emphasized that specialized courses for future middle school mathematics teachers are needed due to the special characteristics of adolescents and make-up of middle schools. It is somewhat curious that such interests in specific middle school training have arisen only recently. This may be partially the result of the transition in nomenclature and pedagogy involved in the change from “junior high schools” to “middle schools.” Nonetheless, an immediate question arises: which preservice courses should be directed entirely toward middle school mathematics teachers?

Before attempting a partial answer to this question, we introduce some constraints. Not all colleges and universities have sufficient numbers of education students to allow for the entire mathematics education program to be directed at one school level. Even in a large university, specialized courses must be offered less frequently, and hence, may cause scheduling problems for students. College admissions officers claim most students change majors at least once during their academic career. Students entering mathematics or mathematics education are often uncertain about whether or not they wish to teach, as well as undecided about at which level they wish to teach. Interactions among students in mathematics and mathematics education are desirable as well as interaction among students intending to teach at different grade levels or in different content areas. Finally, institutions have general education requirements and general teacher certification requirements that limit the number of courses one can reasonably require in a middle school mathematics major. So, most institutions must carefully consider which courses are applicable to all mathematics majors and which must be directed toward a specific group.