Developing Preservice Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: Making Explicit Design Considerations for a Content Course

Research has highlighted the nature of the mathematical work in teachers’ practice. However, preservice mathematics coursework often too narrowly focuses on the development of common content knowledge and not enough on the development of specialized content knowledge, a kind of mathematical knowledge that is specific to the work of teaching mathematics. The authors offer three design principles that have informed a mathematics content course for elementary preservice teachers, and they provide learning outcomes data that suggest the overall content course experience supports specialized content knowledge development.