Mathematics teachers’ conceptual knowledge about and for teaching quadrilaterals

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyze the conceptual knowledge of a group of mathematics teachers about quadrilaterals and the way they practice their teaching. We conducted exploratory research with 23 teachers who answered an online questionnaire, whose results we analyzed descriptively and categorically. The best-known characteristic of quadrilaterals was that it is a plane figure and the least known was that it is a simple figure. Notable quadrilaterals were mentioned more than irregular shapes. In addition, the presence of irrelevant attributes such as thick line and being rotated made it difficult to recognize some figures. In teaching quadrilaterals (n = 17), four teachers would act as expositors of their ideas. Two teachers would not address the non-examples. Eleven teachers would deal with examples and non-examples. In conclusion, training is needed to understand other examples, non-examples and irrelevant attributes to teach in a way that promotes conceptual development.