"U.S. 12th-graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries on a test of general knowledge in mathematics and science." -- "Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future", a report prepared by the National Academies "To compete in a global marketplace and sustain a democratic society, the United States requires the most educated population in history... Three quarters of the country's 1,206 university-level schools of education don't have the capacity to produce excellent teachers." -- "Educating School Teachers", a report by Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
"U.S. 12th-graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries on a test of general knowledge in mathematics and science." -- "Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future", a report prepared by the National Academies
"To compete in a global marketplace and sustain a democratic society, the United States requires the most educated population in history... Three quarters of the country's 1,206 university-level schools of education don't have the capacity to produce excellent teachers." -- "Educating School Teachers", a report by Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
These reports clearly indicate that our preparation of mathematics students in this country is insufficient to retain our technological competitive edge in the global economy. The Mathematics Mentoring Network uses technology to recreate the time-tested tradition of apprenticeships for training our future teachers. Just as blacksmiths in the 1800s learned their trade from the masters via hands-on training, our future teachers should learn their trade from direct interaction with the students they will teach and the teachers (masters) in the field, while under the tutelage of the mathematics educator.
Student teaching typically occurs during the senior year of a future teacher's education, primarily because earlier introduction to hands-on experience is time-consuming and expensive. To facilitate an earlier introduction to the school districts for the future teachers, we use technology to create a link between future teachers and school district students. This mentoring network supports better education of the school district students by providing access to a team of educators, and better education of future teachers by providing a connection to the students they will teach.
To accomplish this, we create individual networks, each consisting of future teachers (university class students), their university class professor (a mathematics educator), a university mathematician, a school district teacher, and that school teacher's class. We then use the technology created by MathNerds (a non-profit corporation) to route the questions from the school district students to the future teachers, thereby giving the future teachers an opportunity to strengthen their teaching skills, validate their knowledge of the mathematics they will need in the classroom, learn more mathematics, and learn to respond to the individual curiosity of the students they will eventually serve.
Learning to respond not necessarily with an answer, but with guidance that allows the students to solve their own problem, is key to MathNerds' inquiry-based approach to learning. By allowing the university mathematician, university class professor, and school district teacher to both oversee and contribute to discussions, every person is deeply involved in the process of developing our future teachers -- a strategy meeting numerous goals of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences report, "The Mathematical Education of Teachers: Meeting the Demand for High Quality Mathematics Education in America".