The Development of Didactic Competence of Pre-service Mathematics Teachers Through Teaching Practice at School

The article investigates the development of teaching profession competence of the students at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences during their teaching practicum at school. The research focuses on how preservice mathematics teachers develop their own original teaching methodology. The main research question addressed in this study is: are teaching and learning methods chosen by the two groups of students, who studied by different programmes (former or new), linked more to the traditional methodology based on the normative educational paradigm or to the innovative methodology based on the interpretive paradigm? The objective of the study is twofold: to highlight the features of developing pre-service teachers' didactic competence in using mathematics teaching methods, and to investigate the relationship between the teaching practicum model and teaching methodology developed by pre-service mathematics teachers. The results reveal that the majority of the pre-service mathematics teachers, who studied by the former study programme, frequently used traditional teaching and learning methods. The pre-service mathematics teachers, who studied by the new study programme, more often utilise both teacher-oriented and student-centered instruction methods, so that the new teaching practicum model is more effective for the development of their didactic competence. (C) 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk