Skip to main content

Preparation and Professional Development of University Mathematics Teachers

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education

Introduction

University mathematics teachers are the people who teach mathematics in a university to mathematics undergraduates, students in science or engineering, business or economics, and in foundation programs where these exist. They may be research mathematicians or mathematics educators, or mathematics teachers who do not engage in research.

In the following sections, the needs for and means of developing professionally for both practicing and prospective teachers are discussed: some as part of university professional development programs, others as part of research studies or teaching initiatives providing new learning and development opportunities.

What Is Included in Preparation and Professional Development?

A critical review of teaching at university level suggested that “many academics have had little or no formal teacher education to prepare them for the teaching role” (Kane et al. 2002). Oleson and Hora (2014) recognize that forms of teaching in Higher Education are...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alcock L, Simpson A (2009) Ideas from mathematics education: a introduction for mathematicians. School of Mathematics, University of Birmingham: The Higher Education Academy: Maths, Stats & OR Network, Birmingham

    Google Scholar 

  • Alsina C (2001) Why the professor must be a stimulating teacher: towards a new paradigm of teaching mathematics at university level. In: Holton D (ed) The teaching and learning of mathematics at university level. Kluwer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton B, Oates G, Paterson J, Thomas M (2014) A marriage of continuance: professional development for mathematics lecturers. Math Educ Res J 27(2): 147–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biza I, Giraldo V, Hochmuth R, Khakbaz AS, Rasmussen C (2016) Research on teaching and learning mathematics at the tertiary level: state-of-the-art and looking ahead. ICME −13 topical surveys. Springer Open Access, Cham

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Croft T, Grove M (2016) Mathematics and statistics support centres: resources for training postgraduates and others who work in them. MSOR Connect 14(3):3–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duah F (2017) Students as partners and students as change agents in the context of university mathematics. Unpublished PhD thesis, Loughborough University

    Google Scholar 

  • Duah F, Croft T, Inglis M (2014) Can peer assisted learning be effective in undergraduate mathematics? Int J Math Educ Sci Technol 45(4):552–565

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grove M, Croft T, Kyle J, Lawson D (2015) Transitions in undergraduate mathematics education. University of Birmingham for the Higher Education Academy, Birmingham

    Google Scholar 

  • Gueudet G, Buteau C, Mesa V, Misfeldt M (2014) Instrumental and documentational approaches: from technology use to documentation systems in university mathematics education. Res Math Educ 16(2):139–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes T, Savage M (eds) (2000) Measuring the mathematics problem. Engineering Council, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayward CN, Kogan M, Laursen SL (2015, online first) Facilitating instructor adoption of inquiry-based learning in college mathematics. Int J Res Undergrad Math Educ 2(1):1–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holton D (Ed.) (2000) The teaching and learning of mathematics at university level. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaworski B, Matthews J (2011) How we teach mathematics: discourses on/in university teaching, CERME7, 2022–2032

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaworski B, Robinson C, Matthews J, Croft AC (2012) An activity theory analysis of teaching goals versus student epistemological positions. International Journal of Technology in Mathematics Education 19(4):147–152

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaworski B, Mali A, Petropoulou G (2017) Critical theorising from studies of undergraduate mathematics teaching for students’ meaning making in mathematics. Int J Res Undergraduate Math Educ 3(1):168–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane R, Sandretto S Heath C (2002) Telling half the story: A critical review of research on the teaching beliefs and practices of university academics. Review of Educational Research 72:177–228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madsen LM, Winslow C (2008) Relations between teaching and research in physical geography and mathematics at research intensive universities. Int J Sci Math Educ 7(2009):741–763

    Google Scholar 

  • Nardi E (2008) Amongst mathematicians: teaching and learning mathematics at university level. Springer, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nardi E, Jaworski B, Hegedus S (2005) A spectrum of pedagogical awareness for undergraduate mathematics: from “tricks” to “techniques”. J Res Math Educ 36(4):284–316

    Google Scholar 

  • Oleson A, Hora MT (2014) Teaching the way they were taught? Revisiting the sources of teaching knowledge and the role of prior experience in shaping faculty teaching practices. High Educ 68:29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rasmussen C, Ellis J, Zazkis D, Bressoud D (2014) Features of successful calculus programs at five doctoral degree granting institutions. In: Liljedahl P, Nicol C, Oesterle S, Allan D (eds) Proceedings of the joint meeting of PME38. PME, Vancouver, pp 533–540

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoenfeld AH (2010) How we think. A theory of goal-oriented decision making and its educational applications. Routledge, New York.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Solomon Y, Croft T, Lawson D (2010) Safety in numbers: mathematics support centres and their derivatives as social learning spaces. Stud High Educ 35(4):421–431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Treffert-Thomas S (2015) Conceptualising a university teaching practice in an activity theory perspective. Nordic Stud Math Educ 20(2):53–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Winsløw C, Gueudet G, Hochmut R, Nardi E (2018) Research on university mathematics education. In: Dreyfus T, Artigue M, Potari D, Prediger S, Ruthven K (eds) Developing research in mathematics education – twenty years of communication, cooperation and collaboration in Europe. New perspectives on research in mathematics education series, vol 1. Routledge, Oxon, pp 60–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Winsløw C, Biehler R, Jaworski B, Rønning F, Wawro M (2019) Education and professional development of University Mathematics Teachers. Proceedings of INDRUM 2018, Apr 2018, Kristiansand, Norway. Located Jan 31 at https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01849922/document

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barbara Jaworski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Jaworski, B. (2019). Preparation and Professional Development of University Mathematics Teachers. In: Lerman, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77487-9_100027-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77487-9_100027-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77487-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-77487-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

Publish with us

Policies and ethics