This paper describes a study of observed relationships between the design of a preservice elementary mathematics methods course with accompanying field practicum and changes in the extent to which participating preservice teachers identified themselves with the mathematics reform movement after becoming inservice teachers. The curriculum of the course with its embedded field practicum experiences was designed to support preservice teachers in interweaving methods coursework and pedagogical instruction with classroom practice. University and elementary school structures were interwoven by conducting weekly mathematics methods course sessions at a school sites followed immediately by related practicum experiences in classrooms in the school. The interweaving of conceptualizations about mathematics teaching and learning was facilitated as the methods instructor provided professional development for classroom teachers simultaneously with the methods course, encouraging the teachers to create “reform-friendly” classroom environments. Survey data from 68 preservice teachers involved in the project were analysed to identify relationships between course/practicum experiences and the degree to which they as inservice teachers, 1-3 years following the course/practicum, identified with a reform mathematics perspective, as well as to examine factors influencing those relationships.

The purpose of this study was to compare changes in beliefs of two groups of preservice teachers’ involved in two types of opportunities to immediately apply methods for teaching accompanying an elementary mathematics methods course. Students in one group applied the methods learned in class through weekly 30-minute peer teaching sessions, while students in the other group worked for 45 minutes weekly with elementary students in public school classrooms where traditional pedagogy was normally practiced. The intensity of the beliefs about the nature of mathematics and of mathematical work held by these methods students was measured using the Integrating Mathematics and Pedagogy (IMAP) Web-Based Beliefs Survey (Philipp et al., 2007) as a pre- and post-assessment. While both groups saw significant change in belief intensity across measurement occasions favoring a reform perspective, a significantly greater change was experienced by the group who applied methods in classrooms, despite the traditional practice that usually occurred in them. The authors hypothesize this greater change resulted from the benefits associated with working with children and from the instructor support that may have tended to nullify the effects of teaching in a classroom where traditional pedagogy was the norm.