Investigate content knowledge and pedagogy content knowledge of the primary school teachers and its relation with the students’ problem-solving ability at mathematical fractions

Subject Areas : Research in Curriculum Planning

Abolfazl Rafiepour ¹ (Ph.d student in education mathematics in Shahid bahonar university of Kerman, Iran)
Farhad Kazemi ² (Faculty member in section of education mathematics- department of mathematics and computer- in Shahid bahonar university of Kerman, Iran.)
Mohamadreza Fadaee ³ (Faculty member in section of education mathematics- department of mathematics and computer- in Shahid bahonar university of Kerman, Iran.)

Received: 2017-06-11 Accepted : 2018-10-29 Published : 2019-03-21

Keywords: mathematical fractions, problem solving, Content Knowledge, pedagogy content knowledge,

Abstract :

The purpose of this study is to investigate content knowledge(CK) and pedagogy content knowledge(PCK) of the primary school teachers and its relation with the students’ problem-solving ability at mathematical fractions. Therefore, 256 teachers of the fifth and sixth grade were selected randomly, and measuring scale of CK and PCK was administered on them. Also, measuring scale of the ability of solving fraction problems was administered on 5179 students of the same teachers. The result shows that; 1) The primary school teachers lack right and adequate CK and PCK at mathematical fractions; 2) Students’ ability at solving fraction problems was poor especially on conceptual problems; 3) There is positive and significant relationship between CK and PCK with students’ problem solving ability at fractions. Mean structural analysis between male and female teacher's shows although the mean of CK and PCK of the male teachers is higher than that of female teachers, there is no significant difference between them. It was proved that there is positive and significant relationship between CK and PCK with instructional experiences and academic degrees of the teachers. The result of this study emphasizes special attention to reviewing and revising pre-service and in-service training of the teachers.

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