An assessment of the level of knowledge of secondary school mathematics subject matter among final year pre-service mathematics teachers as a basis for teaching school mathematics

Abstract

The study sough to establish whether final year pre-service mathematics teachers have mastered secondary school mathematics subject matter as a basis for teaching mathematics at secondary school level immediately after graduation. Based on the assumption of 80% of scores (Guskey & Anderman, 2013) and above in the test administered as accepted cut off point to signify mastery of secondary school mathematics curriculum, the finding of the study revealed that 48.57% of the final year pre-service mathematics teachers have scored 80% and above in the test, which signifies their level of knowledge of secondary school mathematics subject matter, while 51.43% of the final year pre-service mathematics teachers have scored less than 80% in the test, which signifies their inadequate mastery of school mathematics subject matter. The finding shows that over 50% of the final year pre-service mathematics teachers cannot be relied upon to teach secondary school mathematics curriculum with confidence, this is because majority of the final year pre-service mathematics teachers’ (51.43%) have demonstrated inadequate mastery of the subject matter for which they have been trained to teach immediately after graduation. Based on the findings, the following recommendation were put forward; to ensure adequate mastery of school mathematics subject matter among final year pre-service mathematics teachers as a predictable tools for employment, and to serve as a basis for teaching mathematics at secondary school level, mathematics teacher education training should include all secondary school mathematics curricular in their training to ensure adequate mastery of the subject matter among the pre-service teachers.