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This paper reports a survey of research in mathematics teacher education from 1999 to 2003 done by an international team of five mathematics educators and researchers. The survey included published research in international mathematics education journals, international handbooks of mathematics education and international mathematics education conference proceedings. Some regional sources from various parts of the world were also included. We investigated who was writing, from and in what settings, with what theoretical frameworks, and with what sorts of study designs for what core questions. We also examined the range of findings and conclusions produced in these studies. Our analysis presented here focuses on four themes that stood out from our initial investigation of almost 300 published papers, and systematically elaborated through a focused study of a 160 papers across key journals and conference proceedings in the field. From this vantage point, the paper offers a reflection on the current state of the field of mathematics teacher education research. Our aim is to stimulate discussion that can support the development of the field, not make final pronouncements about its nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the contribution of quality mathematics teaching to student achievement gains. Quality of mathematics teaching is assessed through teacher demonstration of the five strands of mathematical proficiency, the level of cognitive task demands, and teacher mathematical knowledge. Data is based on 1907 grade 6 students who sat for the same test twice over an interval of about 10 months. The students were drawn from a random selection of 72 low- and high-performing primary schools. Multi-level regression shows the effects of quality mathematics teaching at both individual and school levels, while controlling for other variables that influence achievement. Results show that students in low-performing schools gained more by 6 % when mathematics instruction involved high-level cognitive task demands, with two thirds of all the lessons observed demonstrating the strands of mathematics proficiency during instruction. The implication to education is that quality of mathematics instruction is more critical in improving learning gains among low-performing students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers for discussion and critique a conceptual framework that applies a situative perspective on learning to the study of learning to teach mathematics. From this perspective, such learning occurs in many different situations -- mathematics and teacher preparation courses, pre-service field experiences, and schools of employment. By participating over time in these varied contexts, mathematics teachers refine their conceptions about their craft -- the big ideas of mathematics, mathematics-specific pedagogy, and sense of self as a mathematics teacher. This framework guides a research project that traces the learning trajectories of teachers from two reform-based teacher preparation programs into their early teaching careers. We provide two examples from this research to illustrate how this framework has helped us understand the process of learning to teach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]