Alternative to Train Math Teachers for Collaboration in English Speaking Countries

Abstract

Teacher Training and Teacher Development for specific purposes is a priority in Foreign Language Pedagogy. Cuban Mathematics teachers have provided methodological counseling in English language, or assumed the teaching-learning of Mathematics in heterogeneous institutions of Africa and the Caribbean. These teachers should be able of adequately manage such internationalist and collaboration missions. However, there are limitations related to their pedagogical training to cope with the syllabus according to dissimilar contexts, because training programs have been focused on English language as the only subject of knowledge. This paper aims to introduce an alternative to train Cuban Mathematics teachers for potential collaboration in English-speaking countries, based on typical activities related to the characteristics of the countries and the objectives of the kind of schools. In this regard, several shortcomings were highlighted and the contextualization was undertaken, based on the articulation of interactions according to the contextual reality. The essence of the proposed solution consisted in using several curriculum organizers for planning the teaching-learning process, with an integral pedagogical diagnostic as background, making use of the experiences of teachers who have been collaborating in English-speaking countries. In order to access the sources for data collection it was applied the experimental method, with a pre-experimental design because no control groups were available. The samples were Mathematics and Physics teachers trained at the University of Las Tunas, through postgraduate courses, to teach Mathematics in English language. It was verified that the quality of their performance as Math teachers was enhanced, for potential collaboration in such countries.