PRE-SERVICE MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF MATHEMATICS FOR TEACHING: QUADRATIC FUNCTIONS
Journal Title: Problems of Education in the 21st Century - Year 2018, Vol 76, Issue 6
Abstract
Many researchers and education stakeholders in South Africa point to the need to develop teachers' personal knowledge of the mathematics concepts that they teach to their learners. In this research study we explore the understanding of 42 pre-service mathematics teachers of one aspect of school level mathematics, that of quadratic functions. Data were generated from the written responses to an assessment as well as semi-structured interviews. The purpose was to explore the methods used by pre-service mathematics teachers to derive a symbolic equation for a quadratic function expressed in graphical form. Furthermore, we looked at whether the pre-service teachers were able to use different methods to generate the symbolic equation. The results showed that 25 participants were able to determine the equation of a parabola using one method, while 11 of them were able to use two different methods. The most common method used was based on the intercept form of the equation. Some students identified different forms that the equation of a quadratic function could be expressed as but were unable to apply this to derive the equation. These results indicate that these students are not yet ready to teach these school level concepts even though they have studied advanced mathematics topics as part of their pre-service training. The study recommends that pre-service teachers should also be provided with more structured opportunities to help develop pedagogic content knowledge of the school level content as part of their teacher training programme.
Authors and Affiliations
Ifunanya Julie Adaobi Ubah, Sarah Bansilal
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP35568
- DOI -
- Views 429
- Downloads 0
THE DIFFICULTIES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN SOLVING HIGHER-ORDER THINKING SKILLS PROBLEMS
International surveys, such as TIMSS and PISA, frequently put Indonesia in the low ranks. It is an indication that the higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) of students in Indonesia are still low. This research aims to an...
FOSTERING RESPECT FOR LIFE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL
The respect for life educational process is extremely important for primary school. Psychologists assert that exactly the early school age strongly requires fostering the feelings of love, sensitiveness and help as the p...
Lithuanian and LatVian students’ attitude towards sCienCe teaChing / Learning methods: ComparatiVe anaLysis
A number of the latest investigations specify the necessity of improving science education at all levels of the education system. A decreasing interest in sciences is one of the most acute problems of present education....
ESTABLISHING A COOPERATIVE WRITING GROUP AMONG TEACHER EDUCATORS: POSSIBILITIES AND CHALLENGES
Getting published has become important in academia and also among teacher educators. The purpose of this paper is to investigate potential benefits and challenges when establishing an academic writing group among Finnish...
DETERMINANTS OF LATENT PROFILES IN HIGHER-ORDER THINKING SKILLS OF KOREAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Past research on higher-order thinking (HOT) was mainly conducted on the bases of educational context in U.S. or western countries. This research aimed to see what kinds of HOT styles actually appear in universtiy stud...