Retraining as a math teacher: Should you learn more content than pedagogy?

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An austere mathematics classroom

You might be curious about how much mathematics content you need to learn compared to pedagogy if you’re an out-of-field teacher and looking to upskill through professional development or another qualification.

Professor Kim Beswick from the University of NSW in Australia explains as part of our wide-ranging conversation about the out-of-field teaching phenomenon. That’s when you teach a subject or stage/year level without having the content and teaching qualifications to do so.

She explains why the crucial content-to-pedagogy ratio for teachers retraining to teach math should be approximately 3:1.

Listen to this latest episode on the Out-of-Field Teaching Toolkit podcast for the full conversation.

You’ll find a lot of episodes on the theme of teaching mathematics as an out-of-field teacher. Check out the other episodes of Out-of-Field Teaching Toolkit podcast here.

Keen to suggest a future interviewee, even yourself, to talk about out-of-field teaching? Get in touch with me at margaret.paton1@gmail.com. I issue a fresh episode each fortnight (every two weeks for those who don’t speak British English). Season one kicked off in June 2022.

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Margaret Paton, Aussie-based education writer
Margaret Paton, Aussie-based education writer

Written by Margaret Paton, Aussie-based education writer

PhD student at Deakin University, Australia, using netnography to explore out-of-field teaching. GradCert Ed Research MTeach|GradDip Comm Mgmt |BA Journalism.

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