Excellent Math Teachers Through the Eyes of Future Math Teachers: Basis for Developing a New Paradigm
Keywords:
excellent teachers, new paradigm, future math teachersAbstract
Different descriptions are given to teachers from different people from different times and places. Academicians have their own share also in describing the teachers in terms of their own sets of standards. This study explored how future mathematics teachers viewed excellent mathematics teachers should be like to carry out their task as math teachers. Thematic analysis was used in this qualitative study to report the themes formed. Their descriptions were reported in themes and a new paradigm was developed as a result of the students’ descriptions. Comments from 41 mathematics major students under the Faculty of Education of St Theresa International College were collated and analyzed by thematic analysis. The study revealed that future mathematics teachers described excellent mathematics teachers as Content Experts, Relationship-Builder, Knowledge about the learners, Enthusiastic, Academically Optimistic, Authoritative, Role Model, Facilitator, Motivator & Innovator, and Problem-Solver. Surprisingly, as future math teachers, the respondents declared that being a problem-solver has a lesser degree of importance compared to the rest of the indicators. As an output, this study suggested a new paradigm for excellent mathematics teachers. However, the paradigm has to be subjected to further study and validation. These characteristics indicate the image of a good teacher in their beliefs which are related to many different orientations from personal traits of teaching.
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