The University of Chicago will sponsor a planning conference to focus on the mathematics preparation for teaching elementary school. The conference is being guided by an organizing committee which includes members from four other teacher education institutions within Illinois. The conference participants will meet twice, once in January and again in May 1991. In between the two sessions, the participants will work on positions and plans coming out of the conference. The conference participants will include mathematicians, mathematics educators, teachers, scientist, and others from research institutions as well as traditional teacher education institutions with large teacher education enrollments. The conference proceedings will be widely disseminated through additional funding from the EXXON Foundation. The proceedings will consist of carefully delineated issues and possible approaches to address those issues. The intent is to generate a set of possible alternative responses, supported by sound rational, and to stimulate the field to work seriously and collectively to improve the preparation of teachers in mathematics. The cost sharing is over 50% of the NSF funding.
