Do you need a degree in maths to become a maths teacher?

is it possible to become a maths teacher with a degree in a different subject?

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With a physics degree it's possible.

With any other science-related subject you can probably only teach it up to Year 9

Reply 2

ea_hx_student

It is totally dependent on your confidence in your own mathematical knowledge. Mathematics is seen as a shortage subject, so as long as you can relate even part of your degree to mathematics you should be fine - I know somebody who did a Psychology degree, with statistics being the only mathematical contribution to the degree who then went on to do a PGCE in maths :smile:

Reply 3

cchocolate

Original post by shawn_o1

With a physics degree it's possible.

With any other science-related subject you can probably only teach it up to Year 9

so its not possible to teach up to gcse with a biology degree and training?

Reply 4

cchocolate

Original post by ea_hx_student

oh right thanks i am pretty confident with my knowledge in maths however i didnt do further maths at a level and dont want to rsk doing maths at uni

Reply 5

TheBBQ

My A-level Maths teacher did Zoology.. he was extremely clever though.

Reply 6

Helloworld_95

If you did a degree in Physics or Engineering you probably could

Reply 7

cchocolate

Original post by TheBBQ

My A-level Maths teacher did Zoology.. he was extremely clever though.

really at alevel? so he doesnt have a maths degree? then teaching gcse would be accepted right? :smile:

Reply 8

cchocolate

Original post by Helloworld_95

If you did a degree in Physics or Engineering you probably could

not gonna do physcs or engineering but thanks anyway

Reply 9

shawn_o1

Well in my secondary school GCSE maths was taught only by maths and physics teachers

Reply 10

cchocolate

Original post by shawn_o1

Well in my secondary school GCSE maths was taught only by maths and physics teachers

oh well but tutoring u dont need a maths degree right? as in outside school teaching

Reply 11

TheBBQ

Original post by cchocolate

really at alevel? so he doesnt have a maths degree? then teaching gcse would be accepted right? :smile:

Yeah, he taught me GCSE too.

Although they only got him when the mathematicians and physicists were already teaching maths, the people who had those degrees would be up first for teaching A-level maths, and then everyone else I guess.

He also worked a lot with statistics in his time which probably helped!

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 12

Petrue

Original post by cchocolate

oh well but tutoring u dont need a maths degree right? as in outside school teaching

No you don't; but tutors who have mathematical backgrounds are usually the most successful ones. If you want to teach GCSE or A-level maths you really need to have done a mathematical (e.g. Maths, physics or engineering) degree but there may still be a chance if you haven't.

Reply 13

SparklyUnicornz

Out of the A-Level maths teachers at our sixth form, only two have degrees in Maths. The others have degrees in Economics and Physics and other science based subjects :biggrin:

As long as you do A-Level Maths and have a teaching degree you can teach it at GCSE level

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 14

cchocolate

Original post by TheBBQ

oh ok in biology i think they do a statistics module but lol this thread is giving me mixed answers some answers are like definietly not able to and some answers like yours are saying yes #confused lol :confused:

Reply 15

cchocolate

Original post by SparklyUnicornz

Out of the A-Level maths teachers at our sixth form, only two have degrees in Maths. The others have degrees in Economics and Physics and other science based subjects :biggrin:

yay motivation :smile:

Reply 16

nadinepierce

My maths teacher has a master and bachelor degree in sociology and he's deputy head of maths. Our school is one of the best in the area so you should be fine :tongue:

he only teaches as and gcse though

Reply 17

The Empire Odyssey

I think you should discard a lot of people's opinions of their teachers... Obviously I don't know how old their teachers are, but many of them would have done their degree and their teaching qualification PGCE or TeachFirst, or something or the other quite a long time ago.

To become a qualified teacher in the subject you wish to teach, your degree should consist of at least 50% of the subject you wish to teach. So if you were going to teach Maths and did an Engineering degree, that degree should have at least 50% of the modules should be in Maths or equivalent. Physics is also an acceptable one too. However, I don't understand why a Physics teacher would want to teach Maths and not Physics is beyond me.

For someone who has a Creative Writing or Journalism degree are invited (by PGCE) to apply for an English PGCE but, they will be at a slight disadvantage to that of someone who has English Language and English Lit joints or single honours degree in English. So perhaps this applies to physics degree when wanting to become a maths teacher.

So, really as long as your degree is worth 50% of the subject you wish to teach, then it will be fine (in this day-and-age)