Reflections on Learning How to Teach Mathematics: The Initial Training of Kindergarten Teachers

Ching-Shu Chen

doi:10.4236/ce.2015.612133

Abstract

Teacher training programs have recently embraced the concept of reflection in the preparation of capable professionals for educational practice. This study included reflection as part of the design of a teaching-learning program developed to train pre-service kindergarten teachers to teach mathematics. The participants in this study were 40 pre-service teachers who enrolled in a two-year program of kindergarten teacher education in Taiwan. This study was designed to assess whether including reflection as a component of the teaching-learning program enabled teachers to better promote their mathematics learning and teaching competence. The results of this study show that engaging in reflection and preparing a learning portfolio can help pre-service teachers gain mathematical knowledge and learn more about their own teaching methods. The results also suggest that mathematical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge can increase over time. Finally, this study discusses how to apply reflection in teacher-education programs in order to promote the successful professional development of pre-service teachers.

Highlights

Childhood education is becoming an increasingly common experience for young children in Taiwan
This study introduced a professional training program to pre-service kindergarten teachers that aimed to improve their mathematical knowledge and mathematics teaching methods through reflections
The results of this study show that the pre-service teachers focused most of their attention on knowledge learning, rather than on practice, in which they mainly referred to mathematical knowledge

Summary

Introduction

Childhood education is becoming an increasingly common experience for young children in Taiwan. Chen develop better ways to prepare teachers, most of them do not appear to provide students majoring in early childhood mathematics education with the adequate preparation for teaching young children domain-specific knowledge (Isenberg, 2000), mathematics (Copley, 2004; Sarama, DiBiase, Clements, & Spitler, 2004). There is a concern that pre-service kindergarten teachers may fail to include mathematics as part of their teaching curriculum, thereby causing young children to miss opportunities to learn mathematics. To address these concerns, this study introduced a professional training program to pre-service kindergarten teachers that aimed to improve their mathematical knowledge and mathematics teaching methods through reflections. This study examined the following research question: Can the participation of pre-service kindergarten teachers in the program improve their mathematics knowledge and develop their mathematics teaching abilities?

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion