The relationship between mathematics teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge and their handling of student contributions: the case of Saudi trainee primary teachers

Al Dalan, Bader (2015) The relationship between mathematics teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge and their handling of student contributions: the case of Saudi trainee primary teachers. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This research aimed to investigate how Saudi mathematics trainee primary teachers respond to their students’ contributions and the reasons for their actions. Also, to outline the possible influence of teachers’ knowledge, both subject matter knowledge (SMK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), on their handling of students’ contributions.
To achieve these goals five participants were observed for eight lessons each and interviewed. The data from three out of the five participants formed three case studies of teachers with differences in terms of their SMK and PCK. Three lesson observations for each case plus the interviews were analysed. The Knowledge Quartet framework was used to analyse the data in order to highlight the knowledge of the trainees and to direct attention towards the incidents where the teachers responded to the students’ answers. The interactions in these incidents were also analysed by the (Initiation-Response-Feedback) IRF tool to classify the teachers’ responses in relation to the students’ contributions.
The findings suggest that the trainees responded to the students’ answers usually with one of two types of response. Confirmation actions in which the teachers confirmed the correctness or the fault of a given answer and questioning actions where the teachers asked further questions usually before making a decision about the answer. They reasoned their ways of accepting correct answers into two types of reasons: class-focused and individual-focused actions. Conversely, the teachers’ justification of their rejection of incorrect answers fell into three groups: protection actions, checking actions and other. Moreover, the teachers’ SMK and PCK have influenced their response to the students’ answers. Their response approach was mainly shaped by the teachers’ beliefs of how mathematics is best learnt whereas PCK influenced the quality of their responses. Also, they depended mainly on their SMK, and to some extent on their PCK, in deciding to accept or reject answers.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
Depositing User:	Megan Ruddock
Date Deposited:	29 Oct 2015 16:58
Last Modified:	29 Oct 2015 16:58
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/54956
DOI:

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