




































Emerging Perspectives 
ep.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca 
 
 
 

Book Review / Recension d’ouvrage 

The Mathematics Education of Prospective Secondary Teachers  
Around the World 

 

by Marilyn E. Strutchens, Rongjin Huang, Leticia Losano, Despina Potari, Márcia Cristina de 

Costa Trindade Cyrino, João Pedro da Ponte, and Rose Mary Zbiek 

Springer International Publishing, 2017, 58 pages 

ISBN: 978-3-319-38964-6 (paperback) 

 

Reviewed by/ Revu par 

Donghyun Seo1 

University of Calgary 

 

Seo, D. (2018). [Review of the book The mathematics education of prospective 

secondary teachers around the world, by M. E. Strutchens, R. Huang, L. Losano, 

D. Potari, M. C. de C. T. Cyrino, J. P. da Ponte and R. M. Zbiek]. Emerging 

Perspectives, 2(1), 1-2. 

 

The mathematics education of prospective secondary teachers around the world, by 

Strutchens et al. (2017), reviews current research on prospective secondary mathematics 

teachers’ (PSMT) knowledge, preparation and technology, professional identity, and field 

experiences. Therefore, this book will be very useful for researchers who are interested in the 

recent studies on PSMTs. 

The first part, chapter two, clearly outlines current research on PSMTs’ knowledge of 

mathematics and mathematics teaching by reviewing journal articles. The authors focused on 

studies about PSMTs’ knowledge of mathematical content, aspects of knowledge, and 

theoretical perspectives governing the articles. Chapter two also describes the studies 

focusing on the relationship between PSMT’s content knowledge and pedagogical content 

knowledge. Lastly, the authors review studies on the impact of teacher education programs 

on knowledge and the actual process of development in the teacher education program. The 

authors conclude that research shows PSMT knowledge is plagued by conceptual difficulties 

in mathematics. 

Chapter three addressed the relationship between PSMT preparation and technology. 

The authors had searched mathematics education journals and had surveyed how PSMTs' 

knowledge is framed by technological, pedagogical and content knowledge and the 

relationship between teacher practica and technology. They concluded that studies show that 

preparing PSMTs to teach secondary mathematics with technology is important, and 

technology can help with questions about student-centered instruction and in lesson planning. 

Chapter four analyzed how PSMTs establish their identities through pre-service 

education. The authors reviewed 14 articles related to professional identity, and they 

concluded that most of the articles argue for the importance of field experiences, and 

                                                        
1 donghyun.seo@ucalgary.ca 



Seo / Emerging Perspectives (2018)  2 
 

according to the current research, the teacher education programs should offer more time for 

PSMTs to think about their professional identity. 

Chapter 5 focused on PSMTs’ field experiences. The authors reviewed studies 

related to field experiences including field experiences connected to methods courses, student 

teaching experience, relationships with cooperating teachers and university supervisors, and 

program organization of field experiences. The authors concluded that the studies provide 

valuable insights into how to effectively incorporate field experiences into the preparation of 

PSMTs. 

There are two things that could have been better in this book. First, the authors did 

not try to survey journal articles about the quality of the faculty of the teacher education 

programs, and they only focused on studies showing that PSMT knowledge is plagued. This 

book would have been more useful if the authors had reviewed articles reviewing both 

PSMTs and the faculty members because the qualities of the faculty members have a major 

influence on PSMT knowledge (Baştürk, 2011). 

Second, it would have been better if the authors had tried to review journal articles 

also arguing whether the faculty of the teacher education programs are ready to teach how to 

use technology. For example, the authors could find articles asking the following questions: 

Are college faculty members fully capable of teaching PSMTs how to use technology? How 

many faculty members know more about the SMART Board than teachers? Do PSMTs need 

to learn how to use the SMART Board during student teaching practice, but not in college? 

The authors concluded that studies show technology is important. However, the authors did 

not focus on studies arguing how to prepare PSMTs to teach secondary mathematics with 

technology. Blackwell and Yost (2013) found that there are many teacher candidates who 

possess the ability to use technologies on multiple levels, but baby boomer teacher educators 

are not capable of creating opportunities for these students that allow them to use their 

technology skills. 

In summary, this book serves as a sufficient source of information on current studies 

about the education of PSMTs. However, this book would have had a nice balance if it had 

also focused also on the studies about the quality of the faculty of the teacher education 

programs. 

 

References 

Baştürk, S. (2011). Mathematics teacher candidates’ evaluations of teaching and learning 

process in faculty of education. International Journal of Human Sciences, 8(1), 58-94. 

Blackwell, J., & Yost, N. (2013). Teacher education programs and technology: Preparing 

teacher candidates for working with P-8 students. Childhood Education, 89(5), 325. 

 

 

 

 


