A Comparison of Mathematics Teacher Training Programs in Turkey, Finland, Japan, and Singapore

Abstract

The aim of this study is to compare teacher training program of Turkey with three different countries. The comparison countries which are Finland, Singapore and Japan are selected according to TIMSS 2011 and PISA 2009 results. This research study is a comparison study in which the horizontal comparisons are used. Data resources are the teacher education curricula of the four countries and the comparison educational research studies about these countries. Data are analyzed through the following four themes: selection criteria of the students, curriculum, school experiences/practicum and graduation criteria. According to the results, the selection criteria of students differ among the four countries. Although all of the countries prefer to use university entrance exams, Finland, Singapore and Japan use extra evaluation methods such as interviews. When the curricula of the countries investigated, we found that the highest percentage of the pedagogical content knowledge courses is in Finland with 73%. Moreover, it is observed that the proportion of school experiences/practicum is relatively high in Finland curriculum compared to others. According to the last theme, the graduation criteria, different than the other countries, in Finland preservice mathematics teachers have to write a master thesis either in mathematics or in mathematics education.