Teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and its relation with students' understanding

Raimundo Olfos,Soledad Estrella,Tatiana Goldrine

doi:10.1590/s1413-24782014000900006

Raimundo Olfos, Soledad Estrella + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1590/s1413-24782014000900006

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Abstract

We conducted an exploratory study about the relationship between teachers' knowledge and fourth-grade students understanding, in the case of fractions. We studied the content knowledge (CK) and the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of 53 teachers and quantified their teaching experience, their mathematical preparation and the socioeconomic and academic background of the schools where the study was conducted. We applied one test at the beginning and one at the end of the school year to 1.532 students, identifying the gains and achievements of each group in the teachers' classrooms. The constructivist-oriented subcomponent of the teachers' CK showed a significant association with student learning, although it is less significant than the association with the teacher's experience. Socioeconomic factors were strongly associated with student achievement, confirming the strong divisions that characterize the chilean education system.

Highlights

On the american continent and in Chile, grade school students’ level of achievement in mathematics is low (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2004; Ramírez, 2006; Cariola; Cares; Lagos, 2009)
We considered two primary factors, as follows: i) The teacher’s training: number of hours spent in training in mathematics or in its instruction, estimated as 2.400 hours for middle school teachers, 400 hours for grade school teachers, 800 additional hours for general teachers with a specialty in mathematics and additional values between 30 and 120 hours for perfecting courses in the discipline; ii) Years of work experience between the first and the fourth grades in grade school education, considered with the teacher’s age
This study considered the teacher’s number of hours of training in mathematics courses and years of first through fourth-grade teaching experience in mathematics as variables that could be associated with their content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and the level of understanding reached by the students

Summary

Introduction

On the american continent and in Chile, grade school students’ level of achievement in mathematics is low (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2004; Ramírez, 2006; Cariola; Cares; Lagos, 2009). Among the factors associated with achievement and student progress are the characteristics of the educational context and of the teacher: the socioeconomic class of the student’s family and the teacher’s own knowledge (Akiba; LeTendre; Scribner, 2007; OECD, 2009, 2010; Olfos; Estrella; Del Sol, 2011). We may expect that state subsidiary policies guarantee an equitable education, this objective is not achieved in heterogeneous countries or in those with segmented societies, where it is likely that the context of educational inequities affect the relationship between the teacher’s knowledge and the student’s learning. Questions remain about which components of a teacher’s knowledge are most closely associated with student achievement and progress and which factors affect this relationship (Hill; Rowan; Ball, 2005; Grossman; McDonald, 2008; Baumert et al, 2010). Our empirical study contributes to understand the relationship between teachers’ and students’ knowledge, focusing on the educational context

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