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Teaching school mathematics to prospective teachers - mklabgr - 09-15-2026
The article “Teaching school mathematics to prospective teachers” by Hung-Hsi Wu argues that future mathematics teachers should be taught the mathematics they will actually need in school classrooms—namely, school mathematics, understood rigorously rather than as a simplified version of university mathematics. Wu begins with research showing that prospective teachers can have serious conceptual difficulties with elementary topics such as fraction division.
In one study, only 30% of teacher candidates correctly matched a fraction-division calculation with an appropriate word problem, illustrating that procedural familiarity does not necessarily imply mathematical understanding. Wu argues that teacher education therefore needs to focus much more strongly on precise definitions, logical reasoning, and the underlying structure of elementary mathematics.
A central example is fractions and fraction division. Wu criticizes the common practice of teaching fractions through vague metaphors or memorized rules and instead develops them systematically using the number line, lengths, multiplication, and the definition of division. The goal is not merely to enable teachers to perform calculations, but to give them a coherent mathematical framework that allows them to explain why the standard rules work and to recognize students' conceptual difficulties.
More broadly, the article presents school mathematics as a genuine mathematical discipline with its own concepts and demands, suggesting that effective teacher preparation should bridge advanced mathematical knowledge and the precise, elementary reasoning required for classroom teaching.
ARTICLE [PDF]