Changes in the ‘beliefs’ of pre-ITE maths students on a 24-week Subject Knowledge Enhancement Course

In this paper I present the work from a small-scale
mixed methods research project undertaken with
participants from a pre-Initial Teacher Education
(ITE) Mathematics Enhancement Course (MEC)
at the University of East London (UEL) between
January 2008 and July 2009. The study was partfunded
by a Learning Enhancement Opportunities
(LEO) grant and is being used as the pilot stage
for a continuing long-term project. Data analysis
is in the early stages; however, evidence indicates
that there are complex relationships between how
students understand mathematics as a subject,
their own experiences of learning the subject at
school and in higher education, their constructions
of what kind of mathematics teacher they wish to
be and their experiences of learning on the MEC.
Findings indicated that the ‘apprenticeship of
observation’ (Lortie 1975: 63) that students have
undergone through their own learning in schools
may be a key factor.

Citation:
Clarke, J. (2011) ‘Changes in the ‘beliefs’ of pre-ITE maths students on a 24-week Subject Knowledge Enhancement Course', Research in Secondary Teacher Education, 1(1) pp.3-8..