Manitoba math educators say students will suffer from relaxed teacher-certification rules

Mathematicians are calling for the reversal of loosened teacher certification requirements over concerns that new additions will be ill-equipped to teach numeracy skills.

“The people who are going to suffer here are the children,” Anna Stokke, a professor at the University of Winnipeg and self-described math education advocate, told a news conference at the Manitoba legislature Wednesday.

“They’re removing barriers for adults to enter the teacher education program with literally no math skills, and they are going to create barriers for the students that they teach.”

Manitoba Education is no longer requiring elementary school teachers to complete six credit hours in the following subjects: math, science, one of Canada’s official languages and geography and history, combined.

A series of regulatory changes came into effect last month in a bid to address workforce shortages and streamline the certification process.

Among them, aspiring teachers of all levels no longer have to specialize in an approved list of major or minor subject areas, often dubbed “teachables,” at university.

Darja Barr said aspiring elementary teachers who enrol in her preparatory undergraduate math classes at the University of Manitoba already come in with “a lot of math anxiety.”

Teachers need more training to bolster their confidence and foundations in the subject — not less, said Barr, a senior instructor in the department of mathematics.

Stokke and Barr both said they and their colleagues were surprised to learn about the changes.

Stokke launched a petition in 2011 and sought support from math, science and engineering faculty to lobby for an increase to teacher math requirements. Several years later, the then-NDP government raised the minimum subject credit threshold from three to six.

Academics were concerned that students were entering university with “incredibly weak” math skills and those worries remain, she said.

“We often see students show up at university unable to work with fractions. They sometimes can’t calculate a per cent, or know what a ratio means,” she said, flanked by Grant Jackson, education critic for the official Opposition.

Jackson, PC MLA for Spruce Woods, raised the issue in the chamber before co-hosting a news conference to call for stricter requirements to be reinstated.

“A teacher who applies to a K-8 job may not have taken a single math class since high school,” he said, before asking Tracy Schmidt, acting education minister, how the changes would improve math scores among students.

In response, Schmidt said the measures will reduce barriers to entry and bring the province in line with many other Canadian jurisdictions.

B.C., Quebec and Nova Scotia currently still require at least three credits of math for elementary teacher certification.

“The best way to increase and improve math scores and standards here in Manitoba is to have more one-on-one time with your teacher,” said Schmidt.

The minister said the NDP is focused on “re-staffing” the education sector and bringing in more internationally educated teachers because many local educators left the profession under the Progressive Conservatives’ leadership.

“Everyone is on board with these changes,” she added, noting the province consulted with the teachers’ union, faculty of education deans council and associations representing school boards, independent schools and superintendents.

U of M dean Jan Stewart said promising teacher candidates have long found loopholes to avoid taking extra math credits to enter the after-degree program’s elementary stream.

Some have left the province to study, while others entered the university’s senior-years stream even though they wanted to teach younger grades, Stewart said.

Regardless of their specialty, Manitoba certifies all teachers to work in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 classrooms.

Teachers need to understand math and teach the subject in a very different way than mathematicians, physicists and chemists do, said Martha Koch, an associate professor of curriculum, teaching and learning at U of M.

“Although it sounds counterintuitive, having more undergraduate university credits in mathematics is not associated with more effective math teaching for early- and middle-years teachers,” said Koch, who studies math teacher preparation.

The U of M, which boasts the largest faculty of education in the province, plans to continue requiring all education students to take courses on how to teach math in order to graduate.

This story was originally published in The Free Press. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.