An Empirical Study on Improving Pre-service Teachers' Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) Level: Based on Advanced Mathematics in China

Abstract

Objectives Based on the MKT theory, this study carried out special teaching design and did a teaching experiment, hope to explore the feasibility to improve pre-service teachers' MKT level in mathematics course.
 Methods This study adopts the quasi experimental research method, selects Advanced Mathematics as the experimental course, selects the math major students of two parallel classes in the first year of a normal university in China as the research object. Use the 5-factor MKT framework and various effective teaching methods to formulate a special teaching scheme. In the experimental class, the specially designed teaching scheme is used in teaching, while the control class is taught in the conventional way. The scores of self-made MKT questionnaire and concept map are used to compare the MKT level of the two classes before and after the experiment.
 Results Before the experiment, the MKT level of the two parallel classes was very low, and there was no difference between the two classes. After a semester of experiment, there was a significant difference between the MKT test scores of the experimental class (M=48.12, SD=7.26) and the control class (M=32.42, SD=6.85) (t=11.12, df=98.00, p=.000).
 Conclusions MKT level of pre-service teachers can be improved through Advanced Mathematics. The method of integrating subject matter knowledge (SMK) and pedagogy content knowledge (PCK) under the guidance of MKT can effectively improve the MKT level of pre-service teachers, and their professional level of mathematics can be improved accordingly. MKT 5 factor instructional design teaching plan is a feasible and effective ways to improve MKT level.