Developing Primary Pre-service Teachers\u27 Mathematical Content Knowledge During Practicum Teaching (original) (raw)
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Developing Primary Pre-service Teachers' Mathematical Content Knowledge During Practicum Teaching
The Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2016
While it is recognised that a teachers' mathematical content knowledge (MCK) is crucial for teaching, less is known about when different categories of MCK develop during teacher education. This paper reports on two primary pre-service teachers, whose MCK was investigated during their practicum experiences in first, second and fourth years of a four-year Bachelor of Education program. The results identify when and under what conditions pre-service teachers' developed different categories of their MCK during practicum. Factors that assisted pre-service teachers to develop their MCK included program structure providing breadth and depth of experiences; sustained engagement for learning MCK; and quality of pre-service teachers' learning experiences.
Development and contributing factors in primary pre-service teachers’ mathematical content knowledge
2014
The knowledge needed for effective mathematics teaching is specialised. It is reasonable to expect that effective mathematics teachers possess a sound understanding of the mathematics they teach, including specialised content knowledge. This study was informed by an historical overview of theoretical frameworks that included categories used to describe mathematical content knowledge (MCK). The purpose of this study was to extend understanding of the MCK that pre-service teachers enrolled in a primary to Year 12 program developed during their program experiences, identifying contributing factors that enhanced their MCK for teaching primary mathematics. The research used a mixed-methods research design. The quantitative component was an analysis of a large cohort of first and second-year pre-service teachers' responses to MCSK test items. The item responses were ranked and reported as least difficult, difficult and most difficult by mathematical content strands. Similarly, a second analysis reported items by cognitive sub-domain, including Knowing, Applying and Reasoning.
Improving the mathematical content knowledge of pre-service middle school teachers
2015
Proposal The tertiary training of pre-service teachers is pivotal in their professional preparation and formation as qualified educators. Multiple authors posit that teachers require a development of pedagogical content knowledge, or knowing a variety of ways to present mathematical content and to assist students to deepen their understanding (Chick, 2012; Shulman, 1987). Emerick, Hirsch and Berry (2003) argue that high quality teachers must possess appropriate mathematical content knowledge, and must also possess considerable background in communicating effectively to students. There are two aims of this educational research. The first is to investigate the self-perceptions of pre-service middle school teachers enrolled in a mathematics education unit as they engage with and consolidate their mathematics content. The second aim is to explore how these pre-service teachers understand and perceive their ‘readiness’ to undertake such a task, based on their recent tertiary training. Da...
Exploring mathematical pedagogical content knowledge of pre-service teachers
Prometeica - Revista de Filosofía y Ciencias
The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their mathematical pedagogical content knowledge and to determine effect of demographic variables (Gender, year of study) on their mathematical pedagogical content knowledge. A Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect data from 104 pre-service teachers. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U-test were used to examine pre-service teachers’ perceived knowledge of teaching strategies, mathematical language and symbols, misconceptions, curriculum, and their perceived knowledge of learners. Results show that in general, majority pre-service teachers have strong perceptions of their mathematical pedagogical content knowledge. They consider lesson planning, purpose of the mathematics curriculum and assessment tools used in a mathematics classroom as important aspects of their perceived knowledge of the curriculum. It was also revealed that their perceived knowledge of misconception would ...
International Journal for mathematics teaching and learning, 2017
The study investigates the mathematical and the pedagogical content knowledge among inservice and pre-service first-and second-grade mathematics teachers. The sample of 300 subjects consisted of 150 first-and second-grade in-service teachers and 150 pre-service teachers studying in a college of education, 75 of whom were first-year students and 75 thirdand fourth-year students. The data was collected using two tools-a mathematical content knowledge (MCK) test and a mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) test, the items on each of these representing the four sub-domains studied in first-and second-grade: numbers, arithmetic operations, geometry/measurements, and word problems. The principal findings of the study indicate that all three groups possess limited knowledge of both MCK and MPCK in all sub-domains. The in-service teachers achieved the highest mean in the MCK and MPCK and the differences between the in-service teachers and the two groups of preservice teachers were statistically significant in general MCK and MPCK and in all the domains. Moreover, the lowest MCK mean was in the geometry/measurements domain, and the lowest MPCK mean was in the word-problems domain.
Pre-service Primary Teachers’ Mathematical Content Knowledge: An Exploratory Study
African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 2019
The Primary Teacher Education (PrimTEd) project was established in response to concerns about the preservice preparation of primary teachers in South Africa. In order to inform the development of appropriate pre-service mathematics courses, an initial need in the PrimTEd project was to establish the nature of the mathematical knowledge of pre-service teachers both near the start and also near the end of their studies, through an online assessment. This paper describes the design of this PrimTEd online mathematics test and reports on the performance on the test of first-year and fourth-year primary mathematics student teachers, at three different universities. The overall performance of students together with the small differences between first and fourth year student performance indicate a need for student teachers to revisit primary school mathematics in a way that provides a deep understanding of key mathematical concepts in order to be better prepared for future teaching careers.
The impact of content courses on preservice elementary teachers‟ mathematical content knowledge
Issues in Undergraduate …, 2010
In response to research documenting the mathematical deficiencies of preservice elementary teachers, many teacher preparation programs are requiring mathematical content courses specifically focusing on the mathematics taught at the elementary level. This study considers what impact two such courses (one course focusing on Arithmetic, and the other course focusing on Geometry and Measurement) had on the mathematical content knowledge and attitude towards mathematics by comparing a group of pre-service elementary teachers who took these courses to a group of pre-service elementary teachers who took only a more general mathematics course (such as College Algebra). Results indicated that those teachers who took the specialized content courses had significantly higher mathematical content knowledge compared to those pre-service elementary teachers who took more general mathematics courses, but not significantly better attitudes towards mathematics.