Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Mathematics Pre-service Teachers: Do they know their students?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe pre-service mathematics teachers' knowledge about students. In this paper, knowledge about students refers to teachers' knowledge of mathematical concepts that are difficult for students, common misconceptions that frequently experienced by students, possible sources of students' errors, and methods to eliminate the difficulties and misconceptions. Twenty-four preservice mathematics teachers enrolled in micro-teaching course participated in the study. Interviews and written documents were employed to collect data. The data indicated that preservice teachers had problem in recognizing the source of students' misconceptions and error. Pre-service teachers also found difficulty in finding effective ways to minimize those misconceptions and error. Interview data revealed that pre-service teachers frequently failed to recognize students' misconception due to lack of conceptual knowledge of mathematics. Moreover, pre-service teachers had issues in generating effective teaching strategies as they had limited knowledge of teaching methods. The results suggest that mathematics pre-service teachers should have sufficient knowledge of both mathematics knowledge and pedagogic knowledge so that they can help their students in learning mathematics effectively.