Pre-Primary School Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teaching Mathematics: A Review of Literature

Abstract

This paper reviews and analyzes the literature on pre-primary teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in teaching mathematics at the pre-primary level. It examines the nature of mathematical content pre-primary teachers have to master and the strategies that are considered to be helpful to children to effectively learn the subject at the pre-primary level. The review showed that pre-primary mathematics plays a vital role in building a solid foundation for children’s future learning. It has been shown that many pre-primary teachers lack the PCK in teaching mathematics at this level. Therefore, after reporting on the teacher competencies needed to improve teaching and learning of early years mathematics, some educational implications and recommendations for effective teaching and learning pre-primary mathematics are outlined.