Russian Mathematics Education: Programs and Practices
orientation in instruction on the other hand. She proposes a model of
the pedagogical process in which the development of the subjects
of instruction (in other words, students) is represented in the form
of a spiral. Considerable attention is devoted to systems of assignments
that “make it possible to put the student into a situation that offers the
possibility of developing [educational] activity.” The requirements for
such assignments are formulated and substantiated. Experimental work
based on the use of the author’s methodological approaches and
recommendations has, according to her, confirmed their legitimacy
and effectiveness.
The dissertation of Zlotsky (2001), defended in Uzbekistan, is
devoted to the system of mathematics teacher preparation in the
context of general university education (although it may be supposed
that a large, even if not the largest, part of the graduates from the
university whose material formed the basis of this study were being
prepared specifically for future teaching in schools). The researcher
consequently analyzes both the mathematical and the pedagogical
components of the teacher preparation system. His study emphasizes
the necessity of imbuing teachers with mathematical literacy, which in
turn is also useful for students who will not go on to become teachers
(as an example of such a “dual action” topic, he cites the Frobenius
theorem, which effectively demonstrates that no other “good” number
systems exist besides the ones studied in school). Zlotsky also discusses
the importance of mathematical modeling (he has developed related
courses) and methodological abilities and skills. Control assignments
and psychological tests were used to assess the effectiveness of the
proposed system.
A recent work by Sadovnikov (2007) addresses the methodological
preparation of teachers in the context of the “fundamentalization” of
education. As far as it is possible to judge, the term “fundamentaliza-
tion,” employed by the author, is of comparatively recent origin. The
author uses it to refer to such phenomena as “the identification … of
essential knowledge, the integration of education and science, the
formation of a general cultural foundation in the process of education”
(p. 13). In accordance with this description, he identifies requirements
for teacher preparation in the context of fundamentalization. For
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example, he proposes “teaching future mathematics teachers how to
form the basic structural units of mathematical knowledge in the minds
of the students” (p. 17). As for the integration of science and education,
according to him that is achieved when the content of education
reflects, as far as possible, “the currently corresponding content of
science” (p. 33). The author has developed certain specialized courses,
particularly courses devoted to the logic and role of problems in the
school course in mathematics, which, again, according to him, have
undergone successful trials.
Questions concerning the continuity and multistage nature of
education, which have been mentioned above in relation to school
education, are studied at the college level as well. They are the subject
of the work of Abramov (2001), which analyzes the functioning of, and
connections between, a three-year teacher training college and a ped-
agogical university. To assess the connections between the stages in a
teacher’s preparation, the author proposes a special mathematical func-
tion, “whose values reflect the effectiveness of the assimilation of the
subject-specific, professional content of instruction” (p. 9). In general,
the work makes extensive use of mathematical techniques; for example,
“a set of didactic units of educational material” is defined “using graphs
of dependence and matrices of logical connections” (p. 9). Although
we cannot provide a complete description of the special mathematical
function referred to above, we should note that its values depend
in turn on eight parameters, which might be difficult to define in
practice. Experimental work aimed at implementing Abramov’s system
of teacher preparation was conducted over a number of years and,
according to him, met with success, with many concrete programs and
didactic materials being developed during the course of the experiment.
The work of Malova (2007) goes beyond the framework of teaching
in a pedagogical university, since its subject is the continuity of the
methodological preparation of the teacher as a whole. Malova analyzes
the problem from the perspective of so-called subjective coherence; from
this perspective, the “teacher’s continuous methodological preparation
is a process that involves the formation of the pedagogue as the subject
of his own methodological development” (p. 11). Of the study’s
four chapters, the first is devoted to methodological issues (including
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the importance of overcoming stereotypes that teachers develop); the
second addresses the problem’s theoretical aspects; the third describes
recommended ways of providing for the continuity of methodological
preparation; and, finally, the fourth discusses experimental work in a
pedagogical university and professional development institutions.
In concluding this section, let us touch on one more general
problem which was mentioned earlier in connection with the topic of
education as whole, but which is also studied specifically in the context
of teacher education. Naziev (2000) has studied questions related
to the “humanitarization” of mathematics teacher preparation. As he
writes, at the present time, “the center of gravity in school education is
shifting from studying mathematics to educating with mathematics”
(p. 7). He regards teaching students how to search for proofs as
a crucial means of “humanitarizing” the teaching of mathematics.
Consequently, after arguing that mathematics means proofs and that
the teaching of mathematics means spurring students to discover their
own proofs, he concludes that the teaching of mathematics constitutes
an irreplaceable means of ethical education and of instruction in
“the science of human freedom” (p. 17). As a result, he considers it
necessary, as a supplement to courses in algebra, geometry, and so on,
to establish courses of a general mathematical character in pedagogical
universities, which would generalize and systematize what has been
learned and which would possess humanities-oriented potential in the
sense described above. Naziev’s study generalizes his experience in
teaching such courses.
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