Students’ perceptions of

A team of researchers are conducting a longitudinal study exploring ‘mathematics knowledge forteaching’ within UK’s Mathematics Enhancement Course (MEC) - a ‘subject knowledge’ courseproviding an alternative route for non-mathematics graduates wishing to become mathematicsteachers.The study aim is to provide systematic evidence of what and how mathematics isconstituted by MEC students, during teacher education and as played out in their teaching. Inphase one of the study (Jun 2009) MEC tutors and 18 students from three institutions wereinterviewed about the MEC and their orientation to ‘understanding mathematics in depth’ (UMiD).While this data-analysis is on-going the second phase of this study has commenced. This paperreports on phase 2, in which the original MEC students were interviewed on completion of theirPGCE course and discusses preliminary findings. In Jun 2010, 15 participating students wereprobed on “elements of the PGCE”, ”on what they learnt on the MEC and how this contributed totheir learning and teaching on the PGCE” and “UMiD on the PGCE”. They were asked to reflect oncertain responses from June 2009 to elicit if their views had changed given their PGCE experience.For example, earlier some students expressed that the MEC would give them a ‘leg-up’ in thePGCE- this was explored in the second interviews. Given early stages of data-analysis, comment on“students’ shifts in UMiD from MEC into PGCE” is premature. This paper will focus discussions onpreliminary themes emerging related to students’ perceptions of MEC and PGCE elements whichhave contributed towards their overall-training for mathematics teaching. Interestingly, these canbe contextualised in “teaching”, “mathematics” and “mathematics for teaching” discourses. Thediscussions will provide insight into how the MEC and PGCE in combination prepare those from analternative route into teaching mathematics and their respective contributions to this preparation.