Accounting for mathematicians' priorities in mathematics courses for secondary teachers

Recent studies suggest that change is needed in undergraduate mathematics capstone courses for prospective secondary teachers. One promising but infrequently used strategy for improvement is to incorporate tasks that explicitly focus on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Expectancyvalue theory provides an account for why instruction of these courses does not more regularly employ this strategy. To make this argument, this paper uses an interview-based study of 9 mathematicians that investigated the process of prioritizing tasks and goals for these courses. As the study found, these mathematicians valued developing teachers' PCK. However, they were unconfident of their ability to teach with tasks and goals focused on developing teachers' PCK relative to more purely mathematical tasks and goals. The central implication is that interventions in mathematicians' teaching must take into account the possibility that it may be just as important to improve confidence and resources as it is to change values.