Comparing the training of future teachers

˙

Preliminary findings from a recent study of the mathematics knowledge and teaching skills of future teachers in 15 countries has stimulated a debate in Chile because they suggest that Chilean students preparing to become teachers have very low scores.

The Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M), designed and implemented by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), found that education students from Chile—the lone Latin American country participating—were at or near the bottom on knowledge of mathematics and on knowledge of mathematics pedagogy, scoring well below countries such as Botswana and the Philippines.

While these are preliminary results, they have generated some heated discussion in the Chilean press, (here, and herefor example, along with discussion of Chile’s own Inicia test) and raise a broader question: How would education students from other Latin American countries compare with students in regions outside Latin America?

 


Suggested Content

Training First-rate Teachers

Guillermo Perry argues improving teacher quality will improve education in Colombia and lists four key steps to achieve that.

˙