Pre-engineering students’ perception of mathematics teachers’ knowledge and instruction

이 연구에서는 사례연구를 통해 중등 초임 과학영재교육 담당교사의 코티칭 과정에서 나타나는 과학수업 반성의 특징을 조사했다. 중등 과학영재교육 경력이 5년 미만인 초임 교사 2인을 선정하여 총 3회에 걸친 9차시의 과학영재수업을 공동으로 계획, 진행, 평가하도록 했다. 두 교사의 모든 코티칭 과학영재수업을 참관했고, 반성대화 전사본과 반성일지를 Davis(2006)가 제안한 '생산적 반성'의 관점에서 분석했다. 연구 결과, 자료의 종류 및 수업 차수에 관계없이 두 교사의 수업 반성 과정에서 모두 '과학영재 교수전략 및 지도'와 '과학영재학생' 측면이 비교적 많았다. 두 측면보다 적긴 했지만 '과학영재 교육과정' 측면에 대한 반성의 빈도도 낮지 않았다. 그러나 '과학내용지식'과 '과학영재교육 평가' 측면에 대한 반성은 매우 적었다. 통합 수준에 대한 결과에서는 두 교사의 반성 과정에서 과학영재수업의 5가지 측면 중 2~4가지 측면이 다양한 형태로 통합되어 있었다. 특히 '과학영재 교수전략 및 지도'나 '과학영재학생' 측면과 다른 측면이 통합된 경우가 많았다. 이런 경향은 과학영재교육 경험이 더 많은 교사에게서 강하게 나타났으며, 이 교사의 경우에는 '과학내용지식'과 다른 측면이 통합된 경우도 적지 않게 나타났다. This study investigated secondary beginning science-gifted education teachers' reflection on their science teaching through coteaching with the case study. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in secondary science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planned, performed, and reflected together their science teaching for science-gifted students during nine class hours over three times. We observed their science classes through coteaching, and analyzed the transcripts for reflective discussions between them and their reflective journals in terms of 'productive reflection,' a concept suggested by Davis (2006). The results revealed that the aspects of 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' and 'science-gifted students' were most frequently included in their reflection processes on science teaching, regardless of the type of data and the class time. 'Curriculum for science-gifted education' were also frequently included although fewer than two previous aspects. However, 'subject matter knowledge' and 'assessment' was hardly included. Two to four aspects among five aspects of the science teaching for science-gifted students were variously integrated in their reflection processes. Especially, the integrations between 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' or 'sciencegifted students' and the other aspects were most frequent, and this tendency was stronger in more experienced teacher in science-gifted education. The integrations between 'subject matter knowledge' and the other aspects were often included in the more experienced teacher's reflection processes.

This study examined the effects of knowledge of subject matter (overhand throwing) and of throwing-specific instructional strategies on teacher's interactive thinking. The impact of these two categories of teacher knowledge on lesson objectives, the quality of skill practice, and kindergartners' overhand throwing development over a unit of instruction were also explored. Eight kindergarten classroom teachers who possessed high generic teaching skill competence taught a six-week overhand throwing unit to the children (N = 150) in their intact classes. Prior to the unit, four of the teachers were exposed to a training program that increased their knowledge of overhand throwing. Four teachers (comparison group) did not experience this knowledge training. During the throwing unit, stimulated recall interviews were conducted. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded to evaluate teacher thoughts, decisions, concerns, information sources, awarenesses, and lesson objectives. In order to determine the quality of throwing practice, the student practice trials were videotaped and analyzed for frequency of opposite foot stepping. The students were pretested and posttested on an overhand throwing test that included a throw for distance, and a developmental stage assessment (foot, pelvic-spine, and arm actions). The results indicated that teachers' knowledge of subject matter and of content-specific instructional strategies play very important roles during throwing instruction. The knowledge that was acquired during the training sessions influenced the teachers' lesson objectives and interactive thinking. This resulted in higher quality decisions. Sound professional decision-making combined with instructional procedures and strategies which focused on specific developmental body actions enabled the knowledgeable teachers to conduct lessons where the students were engaged in a high number of correct practice trials, which in turn facilitated overhand throwing development/performance. Conversely, the knowledge deficient teachers demonstrated lesson objectives and interactive thoughts/decisions that lacked an awareness of overhand throwing developmental concepts. This resulted in poorer quality practice trials and decreased the likelihood of overhand throwing development/performance gains. The overall results support the view that formal physical education instruction in public school settings under the direction of knowledgeable teachers does make a difference.

An examination of preschool prospective teachers' subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge on basic geometric shapes in Turkey

The performance of teachers at the higher secondary level is influenced by various factors that directly affect educational outcomes. This mixed-methods study explores the impact of the key factor of Subject Matter Knowledge on the performance of teachers in District Mirpurkhas through national professional standards for teachers in Pakistan. The research utilized questionnaires for the collection of quantitative data from teachers and interviews to gather qualitative data from Principals across public schools in the district. The sample size of questionnaire was 79 teachers and the sample for the interview was 10 principals from rural and urban area schools. The quantitative data was analyzed through SPSS software while the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. Findings reveal that subject matter knowledge significantly enhances teachers' performance and also play a crucial role in the quality education. This study provides actionable insights for policymakers and educational leaders to design programs that enhance teachers’ subject matter knowledge and ultimately their performance at the higher secondary level. Further research is recommended to evaluate the long-term impact of these interventions on overall student outcomes.

A survey design was adopted in this study. Three senior high schools were randomly chosen for this study. Thirty (30) mathematics tutors and 100 learners were involved in the study. The Purpose of the study is to find out the factors that affect the actual teaching and learning of mathematics in senior high schools. To achieve this, three major questions were answered: (1) What quality teachers are teaching mathematics in our senior High schools? (2) What feelings do senior High School students display regarding the teaching and learning of mathematics? (3) What issues affect the efficient utilization of available instructional resources in the teaching of mathematics at the senior high schools? Questionnaire were used to collect data for the study. The results of the study showed that inadequate teaching and learning resources and quality tutors are some of the factors affecting the effective instruction and learning in mathematics the classroom at SHS level. From the results, the following were recommended; interactive methods of teaching mathematical concepts need to be used by mathematics teachers. In addition, stakeholders need to provide adequate teaching and learning resource to the various senior high schools.

Relations between teachers’ subject matter knowledge, teaching experience and their mental models of children’s minds and learning

With the unveiling in the United States of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics that value inquiry, cross-curricular connections, and the use of technology in instruction, school librarians may be best positioned to collaborate with mathematics teachers to instill these practices into mathematics teaching and learning. However, the mathematics curriculum is often perceived as challenging or even impossible for librarians to connect with. Consequently, such collaboration is often not pursued by either party. This paper examines the factors that shape or hinder collaboration between school librarians and mathematics teachers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with mathematics teachers, school librarians, and school leaders in four middle schools in a highly resourced school district in the mid Atlantic region of the United States. We find several factors that influence the nature and opportunities for collaboration, including: perception; comfort with technology; institutional structures; testing pressure; and knowledge about mathematics teaching and learning. Our analysis reveals pivotal transformations that need to take place in order to strengthen the collaborative relationship between these two domains: (1) changes in the perceptions mathematics teachers and school librarians have of each other, and of various aspects of technology integration in mathematics teaching and learning and collaborative relationships; (2) enhanced structural support at the school district level; and (3) enhanced structural support at the school level to support collaboration. By examining the connections and contexts of these emerging themes from our study, we reveal the impact that school librarians can have in mathematics learning in middle schools.

Little emphasis has been given on the pre-service mathematics teachers’ learning needs on the required subject matter knowledge and skills for which they have been expected to possess at their final level of graduation, as a basis for teaching secondary school mathematics. This study employed qualitative research design, in which 30 pre-service mathematics have been interviewed on their mathematics learning needs. The finding of the study revealed that learning experiences of the training was adequate, but there is disconnection between the training curriculum and school mathematics subject matter for which the pre-service teachers have been train to teach. The pre-service mathematics teachers have viewed lecturer of the program as non-supportive which prevent them from active learning. This suggests that the program should include school mathematics curriculum in the training to enable the pre-service mathematics teachers to acquire the subject matter knowledge for which they have been train to teach. Lecturers of the program should change their attitude and behavior which might have adverse effect on pre-service mathematics teachers’ learning.

We conducted a short subject matter knowledge-based intervention in a quasi-experimental design and explored whether providing health-related subject matter knowledge affects university students’ risk perception and their behavioural intentions. We chose the everyday context of using antiperspirants that contain aluminium and focused on the presumption that antiperspirants facilitate Alzheimer’s disease development. This study was devoted to a risk perception gap caused by the epistemic and ontological uncertainty involved in the contextual background of using antiperspirants and developing Alzheimer’s disease . By computing repeated measures ANOVA, we found that imparting subject matter knowledge as system, action-related and effectiveness health knowledge increased students’ cognitive and affective risk perception. Path analyses revealed that cognitive and affective risk perception had an indirect, negative effect on behavioural intentions towards using antiperspirants. Attitudes and perceived behavioural control fully mediated the relationship between risk perception and intention. The mediation effect differed between students who received subject matter knowledge and students who did not. We discuss the findings from our study related to the role of subject matter knowledge for understanding risk perception, the ambiguity of overcoming and creating a risk perception gap when uncertainty holds and how risk perception relates to attitudes and behavioural intention.

Mathematics achievement in senior high schools (SHS) in Ghana is not encouraging and this has become a concern for major stakeholders. Several studies have been conducted to provide information to understand the issue of poor mathematics achievement. Of all the studies, areas regarding the joint influence of experience, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and subject matter knowledge (SMK) have been less explored in Ghana. In this study, the interplay among these variables is examined in an attempt to explain the variances in students’ mathematics achievement. To achieve this purpose, 210 SHS teachers and 8,400 students in SHS across the country were surveyed and subsequently administered tasks on algebra taking into consideration the variables of interest. The study revealed that teacher knowledge and teaching experience significantly influenced students’ mathematics achievement. It was discovered that PCK had a significant indirect effect on students’ mathematics achievement through teachers’ SMK. The findings also showed that experience did not significantly moderate the relationship between teachers’ SMK and students’ mathematics achievement. The study, based on the outcome, made conclusions and recommendations for practice. Suggestions for the implementation of future studies were also highlighted.

INTRODUCTION. The article questions a basic problem of didactics: the relevance of subject matter knowledge as a quality requirement in teacher training. Subject matter knowledge is assumed to be necessary to facilitate student learning and education. Specifically, it is understood as a requirement for teachers to be able to carry out didactic designs and developments that facilitate meaningful learning experiences and strengthen the conceptual structure of students. The objective of the research is to know if future Primary Education teachers and preservice Primary Education teachers have an adequate knowledge of subject matter knowledge. METHOD. To answer the objective, the type and organization of their knowledge is examined through concept maps, evaluating the productions with validated structural and semantic rubrics. RESULTS. The results show that, in general, teachers have a very poor organization of subject matter knowledge, with a weak didactic potential. DISCUSSION. Likewise, the data indicate that there are insignificant differences between the concept maps of teachers in training and those made by practicing teachers, which reflects a similar andcyclical knowledge structure. The conclusions point to the low and limited impact of teacher education programs on pre-service teachers’ acquisition of subject matter knowledge, even though it is understood as a general didactic requirement for teacher education and, for the development of quality teaching.

In the mathematics education literature, subject matter knowledge is well recognized as the cornerstone of a mathematics teacher’s knowledge base. Though the ‘Mathematics Problem’, the declining standards of students’ mathematical abilities upon entering tertiary education, is well documented in many countries, its effect on preservice mathematics teachers has not yet been analyzed to date. Therefore, we analyze 17 years of data (1997–2013) from a mathematics diagnostic test taken by preservice post primary mathematics teachers (n = 365) during their first mathematics class in a teacher training institution. Our analysis shows that the mathematical knowledge of preservice teachers has declined in all of the assessed core areas of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and calculus, with the more recent years of 2007–2013 showing more rapid decline than the years before. In fact, the average-performing preservice teacher in 1997 achieved a higher score than almost all preservice teachers in more recent years.

This study aimed to measure the relationship between teacher self-assessment score and student achievement in English and Mathematics. The researchers developed a Self-assessment Instrument for Teacher Evaluation (SITE) based on five National Professional Standards for Teachers developed by the Ministry of Education, Pakistan. Using a convenient sampling method, 279 English or Mathematics teachers of grade 10 in 40 public boys’ and girls’ high schools in district Okara were surveyed who self-evaluated their performance on the SITE II. Additionally, based on the Lahore Board’s annual matriculation examination results 2014, the achievement scores in English or Mathematics (n=7245) of students were also collected from teachers. The study found positive, weak or moderate, relationships between teacher evaluation scores and student achievement in English, as well as in Mathematics. The findings also revealed that Subject Matter Knowledge, Instructional Planning and Strategies, Assessment, Effective Communication, and Continuous Professional Development, individually, significantly predicted student achievement in English and Mathematics. The Subject Matter Knowledge, Instructional Planning and Strategies, and gender significantly explained 28% of the observed variance to predict student achievement in English. Only Subject matter Knowledge explained 12% of the variance in student achievement in mathematics.

The nature of knowledge needed for teaching elementary science and the development of such knowledge is a focus of ongoing research in science education. Internationally, there is a move to include scientific literacy as an aim of science education curricula. In order to teach such curricula teachers need two types of subject matter knowledge (SMK): knowledge of science and knowledge about science. Knowledge of science refers to the knowledge produced by science (substantive knowledge). Knowledge about science refers to the nature of science (NOS): the principles and means by which scientific knowledge develops and becomes accepted (syntactic or epistemic knowledge). In addition, teachers need to know how to teach both these kinds of SMK effectively (pedagogical content knowledge [PCK]). This case study analyses the practice of a New Zealand generalist elementary teacher using a framework developed from the literature based on Shulman’s conceptualisation of teacher knowledge. It describes the nature and development of syntactic aspects of her SMK and PCK as she planned and taught a unit on science investigation. Analysis of student learning indicates some success in transfer of syntactic knowledge. The teacher used the limited connections she had with scientific communities of practice and documentation of scientific practice to develop her syntactic science knowledge. She applied strategies used in her general practice to teach syntactic aspects of science. Reflection on the effectiveness of these learning experiences built new PCK, supporting theories about the transformative development of PCK from other knowledge domains. Access to knowledge about the NOS is raised as a possible problem for generalist elementary teachers implementing curriculum with scientific literacy as a goal.

The study aimed to determine the subject matter knowledge (SMK) of Grade-V Mathematics teachers and the influence of teachers’ Mathematics Pedagogy Content Knowledge (MPCK) training on their pupils’ achievement. It used a quantitative and qualitative method of research to address the low performance of pupils in national and local assessments. The study was done in Camiguin among 40 teachers and 825 pupils who were randomly chosen. A teacher made test to assess the teachers’ SMK and pupils’ achievement with reliability of .95 and open-ended test to assess teachers’ MPCK with reliability coefficient of .80. This test was given as pretest before teachers’ training and posttest after training. Interview was done for triangulation. After analysis of the data the result revealed that the experimental group of teachers has significantly higher MPCK than those without training and pupils’ achievement score is significantly higher than pupils under the teacher without training. The researchers recommend that teachers MPCK training be done to improve pupils achievement and teacher-training institutions should include MPCK in the curriculum.