A Proposed Competency Model for Secondary Mathematics Teachers

The goal of providing a well-defined and consistent message about the mathematics content and processes that students must understand and be able to perform is of utmost importance. Hence, this study identified the competencies needed by a competent mathematics teacher, determined the initiatives to develop these competencies and proposed a competency model. Results showed that the competencies needed by a competent mathematics teacher include professional knowledge, professional beliefs and disposition, and classroom management skills. Based on the findings, this study recommends that while the students are still in the pre-service programs, they may be encouraged to take part in discipline-specific competency-enhancement opportunities such as workshops, research collaborations, and best practices expositions to intensify their mathematics content knowledge and may consider the three major competencies in preparing the pre-service mathematics teachers: professional knowledge which can help future teachers strengthen their content or knowledge-base in mathematics, evaluate and monitor the pedagogy and initiate technological updates; professional beliefs and disposition which can support the future teachers in meeting new demands and challenges brought by trends and changing times; and classroom management skills which can aid the future teachers to manage classroom structure to keep students orderly, attentive and academically productive during a class.