A Study on Primary Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Its Relationship with Students’ Coping Strategies

Abstract

Although a large part of the literature has focused on the importance of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, the nature of its relationship with students’ coping strategies has not been explored adequately, especially in the case of mathematics. The study uses a framework which combines aspects of the self (cognitive: stressful events, coping strategies) and the social (pedagogy: teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge). Data were collected by interviewing a cohort of future primary teachers about their experiences when they were pupils. The analysis followed a qualitative text analysis approach. Our data suggest that when teachers are not equipped with the needed pedagogical knowledge for teaching a challenging subject such as mathematics, they may create stressful and developmentally detrimental learning paths for their students. We conclude by suggesting that curricula for primary teachers should be structured as learning communities which incorporate the affective dimension of learning. Keywords: primary teachers, pedagogical content knowledge, content knowledge, coping strategies, primary mathematics education