Abstract
The study investigates mathematics lesson plans that teachers produced for re-teaching purposes. Its goal is to determine which aspects of mathematics-content knowledge are expressed in lesson plans on the topic of fractions prepared by primary math teachers and intended for underachieving students, and to see how these aspects are manifested. The data were gathered in an analysis of forty-nine lesson plans that the participating teachers prepared. The data were analysed in two phases: (1) a category analysis of the plans and (2) a statistical analysis of the data obtained, via cluster analysis and ANOVA tests. The findings point to four types of teachers in terms of their mathematical knowledge: (1) those whose knowledge is faulty; (2) those who have incomplete or scanty understanding of math but know how to phrase a mathematical idea correctly; (3) those who understand mathematical content well but are not strict about correctly describing the “mathematics” that they teach in the lesson; and (4) those thoroughly versed in mathematics, from whose lesson plans one may infer both correct wording of the mathematical idea and consistently correct use of mathematical concepts and principles. Despite the differences in their content knowledge, teachers of all four types planned to teach their students at a procedural level while attempting to impart conceptual knowledge—most likely because they expect little of their underachieving students. Practical recommendations derived from the study are offered.
Highlights
A major challenge in teaching mathematics concerns working with students who underachieve in class
What needs to be addressed so that the reteaching will be better suited to the needs of underachieving students? Below we look at several research recommendations that are relevant to the proposed inquiry and that emphasise the mathematicalpedagogical knowledge that the math teacher needs
Regarding the mathematical content of a lesson plan, we found that only 12% of teachers displayed full understanding of the mathematical content
Summary
A major challenge in teaching mathematics concerns working with students who underachieve in class. ‘Reteaching’ in an individualised-lesson format helps students to advance by giving effective and individually tailored support (Bellert, 2015; Lalley & Miller, 2006). This reflects the application of Hammond and Gibbons’s (2005) finding that effective teaching depends largely on fruitful studentteacher interaction. We managed to find a very limited number of studies on the topic that were published in mathematics education research journals To address this gap, the focus of the current study is on the knowledge of teachers who engage in reteaching students who struggle with mathematics. We investigated various aspects of teachers’ knowledge of mathematical content as manifested in the lesson plans that they devised for teaching underachieving students in individualised-lesson formats
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