Analysis of the Problems Posed by Pre-Service Primary School Teachers in Terms of Type, Cognitive Structure and Content Knowledge

Mehmet Koray Serin

doi:10.12973/ijem.5.4.577

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify">In the current study, the problems posed by pre-service primary school teachers within the context of semi-structured problem formation were analyzed according to their type, cognitive structure, and content knowledge. A total of 134 pre-service primary school teachers attending a state university in Turkey participated in the current study designed in line with the case study design. The pre-service teachers were presented with a table and they were asked to establish a problem suitable for the elementary level using the data given in the table. The data were collected through the established problem statements and written explanations of the participants. The collected data were analyzed by using both content and descriptive analyses. The findings have revealed that the pre-service teachers less preferred real-life problems than routine type of problems and the problems at the level of reasoning than the problems at the levels of knowing and applying. Moreover, nearly half of the pre-service teachers erroneously expressed the grade level for which they established their problem. The results have shown that the pre-service teachers do not adequately use real-life problems and problems at the level of reasoning and that there are deficiencies in their mathematical content knowledge depending on their knowledge of the curriculum.</p>

Highlights

As a means of rational thinking, mathematics plays an important role in raising the fluent and critical thinking individuals need in today's dynamic world
In the current study, the problems posed by pre-service primary school teachers within the context of semi-structured problem formation were analyzed according to their type, cognitive structure, and content knowledge
While integrating mathematical problem solving into the school curriculum and investigating the affective, cognitive and metacognitive aspects of mathematics have been the main issues addressed by mathematics educators for many years, studies on problem-posing compared to problemsolving are seen as a relatively new effort (Cai, Hwang, Jiang & Silber, 2015)

Summary

Introduction

As a means of rational thinking, mathematics plays an important role in raising the fluent and critical thinking individuals need in today's (and tomorrow's) dynamic world. Primary school teachers working in this level of education must have a good preservice training in the field of mathematics education as well as other fields and begin to work as a qualified and competent teacher In this regard, the individuals who will work as a primary school teacher need to have basic process skills such as problem-solving, reasoning, relating, communication and representation skills that have been emphasized both by NCTM (2000) and math curriculums in Turkey (MoNE, 2009, 2015, 2018) and need to be competent enough to impart these skills to students. The increase seen in the amount of research focusing on problem-posing in recent years indicates that problem-posing is considered to be an important process skill In this connection, in the current study, the problems posed by the pre-service primary school teachers in a semi-structured manner were analyzed in terms of type and cognitive structure and evaluations were made about their content knowledge based on of their explanations. What is the pre-service teachers’ content knowledge based on the problems they posed?

Methodology

Participants

Findings

Discussion and Conclusion