Highlighting Content and Pedagogy in the Arizona Teacher Institute Master's Degree Program
2. Claims Examined
Hill, Rowan, & Ball (2005) found that efforts to improve teachers' mathematical knowledge through content-focused professional development and preservice programs improved student achievement. Moreover, Mundry & Boethel (2005) pointed out that experienced teachers who know both their content and effective instructional strategies tend to produce higher academic achievement outcomes by their students.
At the core of the Master's Degree Program are 4, four-credit mathematics content courses on Number, Algebra, Geometry, and Data & Statistics. Each course is co-taught by a University Partner, a mathematics faculty member or a Postdoctoral Fellow in training, and a School Partner, a master high school teacher participating in the Teacher Mentor Certificate Program. Activities in these courses are designed to deepen teachers' mathematical understandings but also to provide opportunities to explore important issues related to mathematics pedagogy. It is our hypothesis that these activities do have a measurable, positive impact on teacher knowledge, which is then be reflected by increased student achievement.