So many students enter college without the conceptual knowledge of mathematical principles needed in order to succeed in higher education. Pre-service teachers entering teacher education programs are not exempt from this dilemma. While training to be educators, many pre-service teachers struggle to understand the concepts behind elementary level mathematics. These pre-service teachers will then continue in the education field and teach mathematics to the future generation. Will they teach their students the way they were taught? The purpose of this study is to investigate how pre-service teachers view their past experiences with math during their K-12 education and to compare those views with their perceptions of how they will teach math in the future. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods through surveys, short answer responses, and interviews, this study examines 38 pre-service teachers currently taking math methods courses at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in order to find out (1) how pre-service teachers view their past experiences with mathematics during their K-12 education, (2) what pre-service teachers' visions of how they will teach mathematics to their students in the future are, (3) which appears to have more influence on pre-service teachers' perceptions of their own future math teaching practices: their past learning experiences or their current teacher preparation program, and (4) what pre-service teachers perceive as effective ways of mathematics teaching and learning. Findings revealed that pre-service teachers tend to view their past K-12 math education experiences as mostly consisting of steps and procedures they were taught to memorize, but they have strong feelings about teaching mathematics for conceptual understanding instead of focusing on memorization like they were taught during their math classes in K-12 education. The results from this study also revealed that pre-service teachers feel it will be difficult not to fall back on the way they were taught mathematics when encountering unfamiliar concepts they have to teach. The need for more field experiences and learning how to incorporate project-based learning and presenting diverse ways of problem solving also came out as ways to improve teacher education programs.

This study investigated the viability of a Digital Badge system to deliver professional development to teachers working with English language learners. The study asked several research questions to determine if Purdue’s Passport system was effective at delivering ELL teacher PD. First, the study asked, is a digital badge system a viable tool for delivering professional development to in-service teachers of English language learners? This question helped determine if the in-service teachers participating in this study would be able to obtain the training materials and navigate the online system on their own to obtain the digital badge.<div><br> <div>Then, the study asked, what types of training do ELL teachers think could be converted to digital badges? This question was asked to identify the types of trainings the participants in this study believed could be transferred to an online system such as Purdue’s Passport system and delivered as individual badges teachers could complete with little to no assistance. This question also helped investigate how teachers perceive the current training they attend in face-to-face sessions. <br></div><div><br></div><div>The final question the study asked was, what are ELL teachers’ perceptions of digital badges and their role in professional development? The final question was asked to determine if the participants’ attitudes toward digital badges changed throughout the study and what the participants believed digital badges’ role could be in delivering ELL teacher professional development. <br></div><div><br></div><div>The data collected in this study included the participants’ written reflections within the digital badge system, pre and post-surveys and interviews after they completed the running record badge. The results of this qualitative study suggest that for in-service teachers there are some benefits to delivering ELL teacher PD through digital badges. Results indicate that the participants enjoyed the ability to complete the training on their own schedule and had no issues viewing the content within the running record digital badge. The participants also had numerous recommendations for the types of training they believed could be converted to digital badges and how a digital badge system could be implemented at their school.<br></div></div>

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