The Investigation of Pre-service Elementary Mathematics Teachers’ Subject Matter Knowledge About Probability

Abstract

Because of the change in the middle school mathematics curriculum in Turkey, it is necessary to examine subject matter knowledge of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers about probability. This study is significant in terms of the Turkish mathematics education literature since it contributes to the future curriculum efforts for elementary mathematics education programs. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews which were focused on explanations about basic probability concepts and an instrument which was developed for evaluating content knowledge for probability of elementary mathematics teachers. Since mathematics teachers should have both procedural and conceptual knowledge regarding the concept taught, researcher aimed to understand to what extent pre-service elementary mathematics teachers are capable of conceptual and procedural knowledge needed for probability teaching. Findings showed that the 23 participants needed to develop their conceptual knowledge regarding probability and they tended to behave computational oriented while solving probability problems which showed also their higher procedural understanding. Besides, it was concluded that they couldn’t make expected connections between probability and statistics concepts.