Abstract
The purpose of this study was to characterize and compare novice and experienced elementary teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of three major topics in mathematics: whole number operations, fractions, and geometry. Twenty-six preservice elementary teachers and 28 experienced kindergarten through sixth grade teachers participated in this study. Data were collected via the Survey on Teaching Mathematics (Rich, Lubinski & Otto, 1994), a researcher-designed instrument that assists in describing pedagogical content knowledge. The results indicate that experienced teachers possess a greater conceptual understanding of whole number operations than do novice teachers, but that both novice and experienced teachers possess primarily a procedural knowledge of fractions. In addition, the results indicate that both novice and experienced teachers think that a good teacher is one who shows and tells students how to do the work.
Recommended Citation
Fuller, Roberta A.
(1997)
"Elementary Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Mathematics,"
Mid-Western Educational Researcher: Vol. 10:
Iss.
2, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/mwer/vol10/iss2/3
