Recommendations for Early Childhood, Elementary Education, and Special Education Majors

 

Department of Mathematics

12 October, 2011

 

Since January 2009, the General Curriculum MTEL examination has a significantly expanded Mathematics subtest (40 questions) that will be scored separately and must be passed for students to pass the examination.  The Mathematical Foundations courses that have been in place here at Westfield State College are entirely compatible with the new "Guidelines for the Preparation of Elementary Teachers" that accompanied this change in MTEL.  (Available online at http://www.doe.mass.edu/mtel/MathGuidance.pdf.)  Indeed, we are one of the very few Massachusetts colleges that have not been scrambling to completely revamp their mathematics content offerings for future elementary teachers in response to these new changes.

 

We are grateful to all those who continue to provide invaluable advising, wonderful support and appropriate course registration of our pre-service elementary teachers. 

 

This fall sees the first semester of our reordered Foundations sequence, which places "Number Systems" at the start of the sequence.  All the mathematics content courses (Math 153, 250, 251, 252) count towards the mathematics core.  A "Transition Guide" is included as a separate document.

Summary of Advising Materials and Advising Guides

 

For Early Childhood, Elementary Education, and Special Education majors, our department recommends the following coursework in mathematics:

 

1)    Math 153  (Foundations:  Number Systems) as a first mathematics course taken in the first year. This course is required for students entering in Fall 2011 or later.  This course will count as Math 253 for students who entered the program before  Fall 2011. Click here for the Math 153 Advising Guide

2)    Math 250 (Foundations: Patterns, Reasoning, and Algebra) as a second mathematics course. This course is required for students entering in Fall 2011 or later.  This course will count as Math 150 for students who entered the program before  Fall 2011. Click here for the Math 250 Advising Guide

3)    A third mathematics core course which is chosen from among the following:

a)     Math 251  (Foundations:  Geometry and Measurement). Maybe taken after MATH 250. Click here for the Math 251 Advising Guide

b)    Math 252  (Foundations:  Data Analysis and Statistics). May be taken right after MATH 153! Click here for the Math 252 Advising Guide

These courses can be taken in any order following Math 250.  In fact, Math 252 can be taken right after Math 153.  

4)   As many of the Foundations courses that a student can fit into their program. 

a)     From the outset of their development, Math 153, Math 250, Math 251, and Math 252 have been compatible with both the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards for School Mathematics.  This now includes the Common Core.  They are designed precisely to provide the necessary mathematical preparation for pre-service teachers in a context that nurtures their interest in teaching mathematics.

b)    We realize that not all education students can take four mathematics courses.  However, to have comprehensive coverage of the content strands of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks students must take Math 153, Math 250, Math 251, and Math 252. 

c)     Students must take Math 153, Math 250, Math 251, and Math 252 to have coverage of all of the areas that make up the mathematics portion of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL). 

5)   Math 352 (Foundations: Teaching Mathematics 1-6) for ELED and SPED only, and Math 352-EC (Teaching Mathematics for Early Childhood PreK-2) for ECED only.

       Click here for the Math 352 Advising Guide

 

More information about these courses can be found at the URL

http://www.westfield.ma.edu/math/courses.asp

 

Questions, comments, concerns, and/or suggestions are appreciated.  Please direct all such matters to Volker Ecke at vecke@westfield.ma.edu or x5348.   Thank you!

 

We are grateful to all those who continue to provide invaluable advising, wonderful support, and appropriate course registration of our pre-service elementary teachers.