Preparing teachers for teaching: Does initial teacher education improve mathematical knowledge for teaching?

International audience In this study, we examined whether the Malawian Initial Primary Teacher Education Programme develops teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching [MKT]. We administered measures adapted from the Learning Mathematics for Teaching project to more than 1,700 pre-service teachers from eight colleges to measure their knowledge for teaching. Paired samples t-test using 725 pre-service teachers whose pre-test (M = .049, SD = .960) and post-test (M = .084, SD = 1.043) scores we have paired, showed no significant gains in knowledge overall (t(724) =-.808, p=.419), and in seven colleges individually. However, mathematical knowledge for teaching for pre-service teachers from college C2 had increased significantly (t(165) =-2.062, p = .041). While the results showed a significant correlation between pre-test and post-test (r = 0.544, p < 0.001), we fail to conclude based on the results that the initial teacher education improves mathematical knowledge for teaching.