Pre-Service Elementary School Teachers

This essay will critique the article, “Pre-Service Elementary School Teachers Becoming Mathematics Teachers: Their Participation in an Online Professional Community”, by Annie Savard, Terry Wan Jung Lin, and Natasha Lamb. This specific article is of great importance to me because I intend to become a mathematics teacher in the near future. I want to know everything I can in order to have a greater chance at accomplishing my goal to be the best math teacher I can be. This article helped with a basic understanding of what I need, but interviewing a professional I have discovered that this article is only describes a rudimentary background in what I need to be a successful math teacher. The article I read was a case study following pre-service
teachers, and their experiences, to find out what kind of background knowledge they needed in order to become a mathematics teacher. The researchers of the case study found out that there are two main knowledge bases needed to successfully become a mathematics teacher. The knowledge bases are knowledge of pedagogy and knowledge of the subject being taught. Knowledge of pedagogy refers to teaching; one must be able to grasp the concept of teaching in order to become an adequate teacher. Knowledge of the subject being taught is knowing and understanding the area in which one is teaching. Those are both great aspects needed to become a mathematics teacher, but there are other aspects needed as well. When teaching math, one must also have a strong background in literature.
Mathematics is not just about math, there is reading and writing involved as well. According to the professional I interviewed, Carla Aycock, professor at Santa Fe College, she has had experience with other coworkers who have not had great literature backgrounds and misspelled words that refer to their field of expertise (math).