Mathematical backgrounds of preservice teachers in rural Australia: a regional comparative study

In recent times there have been calls for a national approach to Teacher Education. The Australian Forum of Teacher Registration and Accreditation Authorities (AFTRAA) and Teaching Australia have with the backing of the Australian Council of Deans of Education supported this initiative. However, concerns have been raised and reported widely about the standards and professionalism of graduates (The Australian 12/3/07, p.1). AFTRAA will apparently specify levels of numeracy needed for teacher registration. Mathematics teacher educators agree that preservice teachers need to have an in-depth understanding of numeracy before graduating. However, they would also argue that competency has to be augmented with a means of addressing the phobias, low self-esteem and poor attitudes to learning mathematics and consequently reluctance to teaching mathematics that many preservice teachers display. \ud \ud This research study investigates the conceptual understandings, attitudes and beliefs of beginning preservice primary teachers from two rural Australian university campuses, one in Queensland and the other in Victoria. In a recent SiMERR report it was noted that students from remote and rural parts of Australia were educationally disadvantaged in many ways. This paper will report on students' initial competencies prior to undertaking a developmental maths program designed to motivate preservice teachers to self-regulate and master the mathematics concepts that they will be required to teach