Pre-service teacher's pedagogical content knowledge: What teachers know about students' errors?

Abstract

Content knowledge is one of the important aspect for the improvement of teaching and learning, attention to its development and study has been conducted frequently. This study was intended to explore the pedagogical content knowledge of mathematics pre-service teachers in Indonesia. This descriptive qualitative study involving twenty five pre-service teachers enrolled in mathematics education department in one university in Yogyakarta. The collected data of the pedagogical content knowledge were examined by using descriptive analysis. This study revealed that many pre-service mathematics teachers could identify students' errors. Nevertheless, they struggle to provide alternate ways to minimize the errors. The possible reasons behind these findings are discussed.