Examination of middle school mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge: The sample of cone [Ortaokul matematik öğretmenlerinin pedagojik alan bilgilerinin incelenmesi: Koni örneği]

The purpose of the study was to examine the pedagogical content knowledge of middle school mathematics teachers based on its components: subject matter knowledge, knowledge of student, and knowledge of instructional strategies. The purposive sampling method was used in the study with the design of case study. The participants were composed of six middle school teachers having different number of experienced years. The data triangulation was made by using the techniques of semi-structured interviews, semi-structured observation and document analysis. Throughout implementation, audio recordings of all of the interviews and video recordings of observations and lessons of three teachers were collected. In this study, qualitative data analysis techniques were used. Nvivo 8 software package was used in order to analyze subject-matter knowledge. At the end of the study, it was found that most of the teachers had lacking or incorrect knowledge about component of subject-matter knowledge about cone. On the other hand, results showed that mathematics teachers’ knowledge of student was sufficient. Furthermore, it was found that the teachers could not sufficiently use the strategies to have the students participated in the process such as “Discovery Learning”. © 2016, Ankara University. All rights reserved

Examining prospective mathematics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge on fractions in terms of students' mistakes

The aim of the study is to examine prospective mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in terms of knowledge of understanding students and knowledge of instructional strategies which are the subcomponents of pedagogical content knowledge. The participants of this research consist of 98 prospective teachers who are studying in two universities in Turkey. The participants were selected with the purposive sampling method which is one of the non-random sampling methods. Case study method, which is based on the qualitative research approach, was used. The answers given by secondary school students to fraction-related open-ended questions in the study of Soylu and Soylu were used as the data collection tool. The obtained data were analyzed via the content analysis technique. The analyses showed that the prospective mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge on fractions was not at an adequate level in identifying and correcting students’ errors. However, it was observed that the prospective teachers experienced more difficulty in the knowledge of instructional strategies compared to the knowledge of understanding students. © 2015 Taylor & Francis

Are middle school mathematics teachers able to solve word problems without using variable?

Many people consider problem solving as a complex process in which variables such as x, y are used. Problems may not be solved by only using ‘variable.’ Problem solving can be rationalized and made easier using practical strategies. When especially the development of children at younger ages is considered, it is obvious that mathematics teachers should solve problems through concrete processes. In this context, middle school mathematics teachers' skills to solve word problems without using variables were examined in the current study. Through the case study method, this study was conducted with 60 middle school mathematics teachers who have different professional experiences in five provinces in Turkey. A test consisting of five open-ended word problems was used as the data collection tool. The content analysis technique was used to analyze the data. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that the most of the teachers used trial-and-error strategy or area model as the solution strategy. On the other hand, the teachers who solved the problems using variables such as x, a, n or symbols such as Δ, □, ○, * and who also felt into error by considering these solutions as without variable were also seen in the study. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group