Characterizing mentors’ performance in mathematics teacher education

This study describes the performance of the mentors in a blended graduate-level training program of teachers in the field of secondary school mathematics. We codified and analyzed the mentors’ comments on the projects presented by the groups of in-service teachers for whom they (the mentors) were responsible. To do this, we developed a structure of categories and codes based on a combination of a literature review, a model of teacher learning, and a cyclical review of the data. We performed two types of analysis: frequency and cluster. The first analysis permitted us to characterize the common actions shared by most of the mentors. From the second, we established three profiles of the mentors’ actions.

Basic components in the scienctific didactical training of the secondary school mathematics teachers

Secondary mathematics teacher training in Spain is currently the subject of a heated revision debate. The speed of social, cultural, scientific and economic changes have left a hundred years old teacher training model well behind. However, academical inertia and professional interests are impeding a real new training of the mathematics teacher as an autonomous mathematical educator. Teachers of Didactic of Mathematics and the Spanish Associations of mathematics teachers have recently been discussing the issue. Their conclusions are included here.

Doctoral programs and academic research: Mathematics education in the Spanish university

We have shown a description of the changes and innovations happened in Spain concerning the research on Mathematics Education during the last 25 years, highlighting specially the fast development of the last 10 years. Neither of these great and striking changes would have taken place if there was not been an evolution within the Spanish society, and particularly, within its educational system. Thanks to this, we have found the appropriate conditions for research development.

Proyecto "mete" (mathematics education traditions of europe): el foco matemático

Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio sobre las tradiciones de enseñanza en cuatro países europeos: Bélgica (Flandes), Inglaterra, Hungría y España. Se trata de un estudio a pequeña escala en el que se emplean métodos cuantitativos y cualitativos, y que, en lugar de pretender obtener generalizaciones, está orientado a arrojar alguna luz que posibilite la mejora de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las matemáticas. Establece comparaciones con los resultados de los test TIMSS y PISA y extrae alguna conclusión para la formación inicial de maestros y profesores de matemáticas. Extraemos de éste los resultados relativos a los datos cuantitativos y nos centramos en el foco matemático.