Review of Diversifying mathematics teaching: Advanced educational content and methods for prospective elementary teachers

Abstract

The book comprises advanced chapters of a mathematics content and methods course for prospective elementary teachers aimed at their familiarity with and understanding of ideas naturally emerging from the mathematics curriculum they prepare to teach. Most of the existing publications for prospective (and practicing) elementary teachers rarely demonstrate the unfolding intricacy of mathematical concepts beyond the traditional content. This inadvertent omission of a more advanced content of elementary mathematics leaves out many useful methods of teaching the subject matter. The main pedagogic idea of the book is to show that elementary mathematics content and its methods of teaching are not in the relation of dichotomy when methods do not depend on content and content does not affect methods. Rather, the book intends to show how the diversity of methods stems from the knowledge of content and how the appreciation of this diversity opens a window to the teaching of new (extended) content. Put another way, the book includes material that the author would have shared with teacher candidates had there have been more instructional time than a 3 credit hour master’s level course “Elementary Mathematics: Content and Methods” provides. Thus, the book can be used to supplement a basic text for such a course by extending content and diversifying methods