Complementing Mathematics Teachers’ Horizon Content Knowledge with an Elementary-on-Advanced Aspect

Abstract

Although Ball and her colleagues provided empirical evidence to support the existence of the six sub-domains in mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) and further explained or defined the majority of these sub-domains, there were few explanations of what horizon content knowledge (HCK) embedded in MKT meant and they merely provided ideas about HCK. Many researchers attempted to provide some teaching incidents and exemplification to interpret the construct of HCK. Moreover, they thought teachers’ studies of tertiary mathematics are useful for classroom teaching practice. Their discourse and instantiation of HCK was correspondent with a higher perspective on elementary mathematics mentioned by Felix Klein (1924), but was not entirely coincide with a kind of elementary perspective on advanced knowledge introduced by Ball and Bass (2009). This study lasted 1 years, and data collection included in-depth interviews, classroom observation and video analysis. We provide a shared classroom teaching incidence and illustrations to explain and to describe the construct of HCK. HCK not only is a kind of elementary perspective on advanced mathematical knowledge, but also complements to a higher perspective on elementary mathematics. Furthermore, HCK could be seen as a reciprocal pathway between the elementary and advanced mathematical knowledge.