Project Overview
Description
TEDS-M will examine the links between teacher education policies, practices and outcomes. The study will provide participating institutions and countries with a valuable opportunity to conduct research on their own teacher education program(s) and system and to learn from approaches used in other countries.
The main goal of TEDS-M is to elucidate the contribution of teacher preparation policies, programs, and practices as found in many countries to the capacity of their teacher education graduates to teach mathematics well in primary and lower secondary schools. The TEDS-M project includes:
- Surveys of the policies and curricula – including standards and expectations for teacher learning teacher – found in teacher preparation programs and institutions.
- Surveys of future teachers of their background, learning opportunities, knowledge related to the teaching of mathematics, and perspectives on teaching and learning.
- Surveys of mathematics, mathematics education, and general education faculty about the types of learning experiences provided in courses and their perspectives on teaching and learning.
- Collection of example syllabi for all required courses in a teacher preparation program.
TEDS-M in the United States
About 100 colleges/universities have been randomly selected to represent the United States in this international study. Strata were used in the random selection process to ensure that these institutions represent a range of states, institution size, and Carnegie Foundation classification. Two rounds of data collection will occur in the U.S. with about 50 institutions participating each time. Administration of Future Teacher Surveys and Educator Surveys will take place in spring, 2008 on about half of the participating campuses and in spring, 2009 on the other half.
Future Teachers in their final year of teacher preparation, i.e., ready to teach by the fall of the year they would completed a survey, are the focus of the study. Educator Surveys are targeted to those who teach any required course in the areas of mathematics, mathematics education, and general education for these Future Teachers during the academic year of the respective spring survey.