Higher quality teachers are needed to improve school student performance and participation in maths, according to the just released Reconceptualising Maths and Science Teacher Education Programmes report. Part of the problem is “the failure of teacher-centred pedagogies focused on delivery of resolved and abstracted knowledge to engage students,” compounded by “a growing shortfall” of primary and secondary school teachers “capable of deeper level engagement with disciplinary ideas and practices,” ReMSTEP leader Stephen Dinham (University of Melbourne) and colleagues write.

Their core conclusion is that it is necessary to change students, teachers and the community’s “conceptions and personal mindsets” of maths and science, “from a traditional paradigm that maths and science knowledge is fixed and ‘hard’ and consists of solving problems using known techniques, towards a more realistic paradigm that maths and science are about applying and discovering new knowledge to solve real-world contemporary problems.”

The report also points to success in the way it’s programmes have helped pre-service teachers change their perceptions; “to redefine their role of science (and maths) teachers as facilitators rather than the preacher or the vessel of knowledge.”

The report points to seven innovations to change maths teaching, including; involving maths and science academics in subject-design for pre-service teachers, adding science and maths specialisation units to primary teaching courses and creating a pipeline for high performing maths and science undergraduates to flow into schools.

This was an enormous project, with staff from four universities on project teams and contributions from around 150 academics around Australia, with specialist programmes created and applied.