Mathematics is an abstract discipline with its particular ways of knowledge construction, definitive procedures, and rules and symbols. The Mathematics Education courses will provide students with opportunities to engage with the history and nature of the subject, its content, and curriculum and pedagogy in relation to elementary grade mathematics.

The first course Knowledge in Mathematics will illustrate the nature, method and content in mathematics through the introduction of some elementary ideas like numbers, algebra and geometry. The course will attempt to provide a glimpse of the ways in which knowledge in mathematics is systematised and structured. It will also engage students with some problem solving and proving related to the area, at different levels of complexity. This is intended to give them a broad sense of how the subject works, the inherent complexities involved in understanding some of the rudimentary ideas and methods, and emphasizes the need for understanding the subject and developing mathematical thinking and reasoning tools while teaching and learning mathematics at the school level.

The second course Curriculum and Pedagogy of Mathematics will help students develop a coherent approach to teaching and learning of mathematics from understanding the goals and curriculum design of mathematics, to principles underlying construction of teaching and learning environments and activities, and finally assessment in mathematics. The course will also introduce students to issues of equity and access in mathematics classrooms which has implications for designing teaching and learning situations in classrooms.

The third course Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) for Teaching Elementary Mathematics will expose students to a systematic and deeper analysis of particular areas of elementary school mathematics curriculum, its content and pedagogy. The course will help students develop an imagination of how some of the content can be organized and transacted, identify key ideas to be taught and learnt, understand students’ thinking and reasoning in these areas, the representations and tasks which can be used for meaningful teaching and learning, while keeping in mind the ways in which students typically think and reason in specific areas.

The fourth and final course, Curriculum Material Development for Teaching Mathematics will give them opportunities to survey some of the existing materials used in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Students will also design and develop some teaching learning materials that they can use in their own teaching.