Relationships between the influences on primary teachers’ mathematics knowledge

Abstract

Teachers' subject knowledge remains the topic of much discussion. Recent reports have highlighted the view that strong subject knowledge is fundamental in enabling pupils to gain a comprehensive understanding in their mathematical learning. Although much research surrounds the development of different constructs of subject knowledge, less has been undertaken in order to identify what the mathematical subject knowledge of current primary school teachers consists of and how it is constructed. This session reports on the findings of a small scale project that aimed to identify areas for improvement within the continuing professional development of primary school mathematics teachers in two schools. The research involved interviewing 11 primary school teachers using questions adapted from the research of Ma (1999) designed to gain an understanding of their approaches to teaching a topic, how they dealt with pupils? misconceptions and the extent of their own subject knowledge in order to prepare for the unexpected when teaching. The emergent conceptual framework of the influences of primary school teachers? mathematical content knowledge will be discussed as will the relationship between these influences, which reveal a multi-layered belief system that is well-intended and well-informed at the top level but underpinned by less firmly established levels of subject knowledge and pedagogical approaches.

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