The IEA Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M 2008) was a comparative study of primary and secondary mathematics teacher education. It examined how different countries prepared teachers to teach mathematics in primary and lower-secondary schools.

TEDS-M paid particular attention to links between teacher education policies, practices, and outcomes. TEDS-M asked several key research questions:

• What is the national policy context for mathematics teacher education?

• What are the main characteristics of mathematics teacher education programs, and how do they vary across countries?

• What is the level of mathematics and related teaching knowledge acquired by prospective primary and secondary mathematics teachers?

Seventeen countries participated in TEDS-M. Approximately 22,000 future teachers from 750 programs in about 500 institutions were surveyed and tested. Teaching staff within these programs were also surveyed. In total, close to 5,000 mathematicians, mathematics educators, and general pedagogy educators took part in the study.

The 17 countries that participated in TEDS-M were Botswana, Canada (four provinces), Chile, Chinese Taipei, Georgia, Germany, Malaysia, Norway, Oman (lower-secondary teacher education only), the Philippines, Poland, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Spain (primary teacher education only), Switzerland (German-speaking cantons), Thailand, and the United States of America (public institutions only).

The Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER) and Michigan State University (MSU) were selected as the international study centres for TEDS-M. The members of the two international centres and the national research coordinators (NRCs) of the participating countries worked together from 2006 to 2011 on the study, which received funding from the IEA, the United States of America National Science Foundation and the collaborating countries.