How Should Math Teachers Teach Math?

Six years ago, the UNC System tapped eight education professors to develop a “literacy framework” that would set common standards for how North Carolina’s public universities should instruct future educators to teach reading in elementary school classrooms.

Teacher training programs had long lacked consistency in their approaches, and some were using outdated methods. The group’s resulting 115-page report, released in February 2021, was just one piece of a yearslong process that ultimately required system-level directives and state legislation to improve literacy education. Finally, two years ago, all of the system’s educator-preparation programs adopted the “science of reading,” a research-backed approach that emphasizes phonics and is now required in most states.

System officials hope it doesn’t take that long to revamp math teacher training.

“Our schools of ed got to where they needed to be based on those measures,” Ashton Clemmons, the UNC System’s associate vice president of P-12 strategy and policy, said of the science of reading, “and everyone in the state started talking about math.”

Those were part of Clemmons’ opening remarks at a gathering last month of education faculty from around the system, plus 11 “math fellows”—a group of professors that was tasked over the past year with developing an evidence-based framework for elementary math instruction in teacher-preparation programs. Over two days at Cary’s SAS Institute, the fellows shared with faculty the new standards and guidelines for implementing them in their schools. 

The goal of the framework, Clemmons told the group, is to ensure the UNC System can “prepare the strongest teachers of math,” which should in turn provide better instruction for students.

North Carolina students’ grade-level proficiency in math lags pre-pandemic levels, though it has steadily improved in recent years and has generally been higher than reading proficiency levels. 

State leaders have shown renewed interest in improving teacher training and student achievement.

Gov. Josh Stein and legislative leaders recently created a bipartisan “Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education.” The state Department of Public Instruction is expected to release new K-12 math standards this summer, which it hopes will draw clearer ties between what students learn in the classroom and their experiences later in life. Those standards will replace the ones implemented after the state ditched the controversial Common Core principles that were a flashpoint in national education debates for years.

The state legislature is considering a bill to require public schools to “implement high-quality mathematics instruction” in elementary and middle schools, a measure akin to the state’s “Read to Achieve” program that requires students to read at grade level by the end of third grade.

Clemmons noted there is no legislative mandate for the UNC System to improve its math instruction for future teachers, but officials chose to take up the task “proactively.” Clemmons believes North Carolina is one of the few state university systems in the country, if not the only one, to do so without intervention from lawmakers.

“This whole work is our effort to say, we in the UNC System have experts that can and are working together to meet the needs of our state,” she said.

While the reading overhaul around the country has emphasized making sure elementary students learn phonics, the summit discussion focused less on specific content that math classes should include and more on ensuring that teachers know how to keep students from getting discouraged by the subject.

The framework is divided into two sections: a set of “course guidelines,” which define specific skills that future teachers should gain in their math education classes, and “program guidelines,” which define how the curriculum in math educator-preparation programs should be designed and sequenced.

For instance, the first course guideline—referred to as a “foundation”—states that courses for future elementary math teachers should “ensure that teacher candidates develop Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching,” a specialized approach that equips future educators with a deep understanding of math concepts and how to teach them to students. To help achieve that aim, a UNC System guideline for teacher-preparation programs states they should include at least 165 hours of instruction “focused on building both mathematics content knowledge and effective pedagogy for teaching mathematics.”

The framework also argues that the programs should equip teachers with “productive mathematics teaching dispositions,” or a positive attitude toward math and teaching it to students. The framework says teachers should present math as a useful discipline of logic, problem-solving, and “sense-making.” Teachers should also “demonstrate resilience” in math by using any mistakes they make as learning opportunities for their students.

“Our elementary school teachers are the first people who have a major impact on shaping students’ mathematical identities and their confidence in math,” said Katie Johnston, an assistant professor of mathematics at Winston-Salem State University and one of the fellows who worked on the framework. 

Lyndsay Britt, an assistant professor of education at Elizabeth City State University who taught high school math and was also a school administrator before moving to higher education, said she saw firsthand how critical solid math skills at the elementary level were for students as they progressed through their education. Establishing confidence in math early could have lasting impacts, said Britt, who also served as one of the math fellows.

“They will not avoid a career later in life because they didn’t want to go into a STEM field because it had math,” Britt said. “We want to try to get rid of that negativity around the idea of math.”

While the framework is intended to create “statewide coherence” in math education, it acknowledges that there are unique considerations between educator-preparation programs that might require flexibility. For instance, fulfilling a requirement suggesting teacher candidates should get field experience—like observing classrooms or working as a student teacher—in different types of schools might be difficult depending on the location or size of their program. 

To begin implementing the framework, each program performed a self-assessment developed by the fellows to determine how its curricula stack up to the new guidelines. They will identify areas for improvement to measure over the next year, Clemmons said. The framework notes that it should be used as “an instrument for programs to iteratively self-reflect” and make changes to their instruction as needed. 

“It gives opportunities for conversations at each university about what we need to do to make improvements,” Britt said. “And that’s a start.”