Back to CRME Home PageCollaborative Group for Research in Mathematics Education
Project leader: Claire Mooney, email: cmm2@soton.ac.uk
Team includes: Mike Fletcher, Keith Jones
The project was part-supported by an award from the UK Teacher Training Agency.
The knowledge of mathematics that elementary teachers bring to their teaching is recognised as a significant influence on how successfully they teach mathematics (Fennema and Franke, 1992; NRC, 2001) yet this is more complex than simply requiring a grasp of mathematics content (Ball, 1990; Ma, 1999). A number of studies have examined trainee elementary teachers' knowledge of number, and how this knowledge is related to their teaching competence (for example, Rowland et al, 2000). This study aimed to extend this work to examine graduate primary school trainee teachers' knowledge and understanding of spatial concepts. The theoretical framework developed for this study built on suggestions that Shulman's (1986) model of teacher knowledge may be too simplistic (see, for instance, Cochran, DeRuiter and King, 1993) by incorporating Ma's (ibid) notion of "profound understanding of fundamental mathematics" (PUFM).
One aim of the study was to determine what form of geometrical knowledge is needed for the effective teaching of spatial concepts. Data from audits of trainee teacher knowledge and confidence, together with assessments of their teaching competency, indicated that trainee teachers' knowledge of geometry is quite poor, certainly poorer than their knowledge of number or algebra. They appear not to recall some topics, may never have met others (for example, the nets of solids), and seem unable to solve relatively simple problems such as calculating the surface area of a triangular prism.
Publications (in date order)
Mooney, C., Fletcher, M. and Jones, K. (2003), Minding your Ps
and Cs: Subjecting knowledge to the practicalities of teaching geometry and
probability, Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning
Mathematics, 23(3), 79-84.
Click here for
full article in pdf format.
Jones, K., Mooney, C. and Harries, T. (2002), Trainee Primary Teachers’
Knowledge of Geometry for Teaching. Proceedings of the British Society for
Research into Learning Mathematics, 22(2), 95-100.
Click here for
full paper in pdf format.
Mooney, C. and Jones, K. (2002), Lost in Space: Primary Trainee Teachers'
Spatial Subject Knowledge and their Classroom Performance. In: A. D. Cockburn
and E. Nardi (Eds), Proceedings of the 26th Conference of the International
Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Vol 1. p363. [extended
abstract]
Click here for
the extended abstract in pdf format.
Conference Presentations
Conference of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, Birmingham, November 2003.
Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, UEA, UK, 2002.
Conference of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, Bristol, May 2002.
Other relevant publications
Jones, K. and Mooney, C. (2003), Making Space for Geometry in Primary
Mathematics. In: I. Thompson (ed), Enhancing Primary Mathematics
Teaching. London: Open University Press. pp 3-15. ISBN: 0335213758
Click here for
full article in pdf format.
Related CRME Projects
Teachers' Understanding
of the Teaching and Learning of Algebra
This project was supported by a full-time research student funded
by the Government of Oman.
Manipulatives in Teacher
Education in Geometry
This project was supported by a grant from the Brazilian
Ministry of Education Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), grant number 201535/93.
Indicative bibliography
Ball, D. L. (1990), Teaching Mathematics for Understanding: What do teachers need to know about subject matter knowledge? In: M. M. Kennedy (ed.), Teaching Academic Subjects to Diverse Learners. New York: TCP, pp. 63-83.
Cochran, K. F., DeRuiter, J. A., and King, R. A. (1993), Pedagogical Content Knowing: An integrative model for teacher preparation. Journal of Teacher Education, 44, 263-272.
Fennema, E. and Franke, M. L. (1992), Teachers' knowledge and its impact. In: Douglas A. Grouws (ed.), Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning. New York: Macmillan. pp. 147-164.
Ma, L. (1999), Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States. Mahwah, NJ: LEA.
National Research Council (2001), Knowing and Learning Mathematics for Teaching. Washington: National Academy Press.
Rowland, T. et al (2000), Primary Teacher Trainees' Mathematics Subject Knowledge and Classroom Performance. In: T. Rowland and C. Morgan (eds.) Research in Mathematics Education Vol. 2. London: BSRLM. pp. 3-18.
Shulman, L. S. (1986), Those who Understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14.
Page updated 24 November 2006
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