Effects of Teacher Training on Secondary Teachers’ Mathematical Content Knowledge in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh, there are improvements in secondary education by quantitative indicators but the satisfactory picture is remained far from the quality. The gross deficiency in teaching includes one of the main reasons for poor quality of secondary education. There are higher failure rates in Mathematics subject in Secondary School Certificate examination in the last consecutive years. An extensive review of research has shown that teachers account to a large extent for student learning and achievement gains. For secondary teacher education in Bangladesh, there is a one-year long training program named as Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.). Therefore, the study sought to find out the effectiveness of B.Ed. training program on mathematics teachers’ content knowledge as a mean of improving secondary school mathematics in Bangladesh. The study was conducted among 38 mathematics teachers (trained and untrained) selected from 16 secondary schools of Dhaka city using survey method. Teacher’s content knowledge was measured through an assessment test and classroom teaching observation. The study found that though the B.Ed. trained mathematics teachers (96.3%) possess better content knowledge than their counterpart (91.7%) but no relationship between teachers’ personal characteristics and their content knowledge in mathematics. This is the first study to investigate the effectiveness of secondary teacher education program within Bangladesh. It contributes important insights about secondary teacher education that can be used to inform the professional development of the secondary school mathematics teachers in Bangladesh.