Teachers' Rational Pursuit

Because the need of quality has replaced the need of quantity, teachers' professional development has become a hot topic in teacher education all around the world, and one of its key contents is to study teachers' knowledge. However, How to understand the concept of knowledge? What is teachers' knowledge? How many elements are there in mathematics teachers' knowledge? Which element is the most important one during mathematics teaching? Where does mathematics teachers' knowledge affect teaching? And what is the situation of teachers' knowledge? How can a teacher enrich his/her knowledge? Besides, if a teacher is abundant in knowledge, is he/she a good teacher?Using the combined method of qualitative and quantitive analysis, we try to answer questions above.First, in order to obtain a wide epistemological background, we review some research in the past about knowledge, teachers' knowledge and mathematics teachers' knowledge. Second, some basic theories are introduced and explained in detail, including some viewpoints in epistemology and psychology. These viewpoints can give us some theoretical instructions and enlightenments. Third, we clarify some opinions on knowledge, teachers' knowledge, and mathematics teachers' knowledge based on content above. Fourth, we do some research on the feature of mathematics teachers' knowledge, and compare the differences between mathematics teachers in primary school, in middle school and in high school. Fifth, through classroom observing, we confirm the existence of teachers' knowledge elements: if it effects mathematics teaching, it is an element of mathematics teachers' knowledge. Meanwhile, we try to discover where mathematics teachers' knowledge influences by observing mathematics teaching in difference professional stages. Sixth, through questionnaire and talking with teachers and students, we try to find the situation of mathematics teachers' knowledge, and give some strategies to enrich teachers' knowledge. Finally, the standard of requiring teachers' knowledge and the value of teachers' knowledge are discussed,then the feature of experience teachers are given.Thus, it is pointed that teachers should enrich their knowledge and pursue educational wisdom. The main conclusion includes: (1) Mathematics teachers' knowledge includes mathematics knowledge, education knowledge, psychology knowledge, knowledge in other fields and special scene knowledge. These elements interact with each other which make up of a teachers' knowledge structure. (2) The research shows that mathematics knowledge and educational knowledge have relatively higher influence on mathematics teaching (there is no significant difference between them), then psychology knowledge, and other knowledge. (3) Comparing the opinions of mathematics teachers in primary schools, in middle schools and in high schools, we can see that there are significant differences between education knowledge and mathematics knowledge, but there is no significant difference between psychology knowledge and other knowledge. (4) Mathematics teachers' knowledge influences on teaching design, teaching behavior, teachers' emotion and students' thinking, students' emotion, and so on. (5) The features of student teachers' mathematics education views are interrelated, subconscious, superficial and uncertain. (6) There are some problems of student teachers' knowledge. (7) There is the fracture between mathematics teachers' ideas about teaching and their behavior in teaching. (8) There are some problems in the situation of mathematics teachers' knowledge, such as ignoring students' answers; not letting students to discover questions by themselves and posing invalid questions. (9) "Experience is to Study" is a conception of teachers' learning. (10) Learning from teachers' teacher practice is an effective way to enrich their knowledge. (11) Students mathematics teachers should have some basic teaching knowledge. (12) Mathematics teachers' educators should pay more attention to mathematics teachers' learning material. (13) The understanding of teachers learning includes teachers' cognition style, teachers' thinking style and teachers' living style. (14) The standard of requiring teachers' knowledge includes knowing, understanding, using and developing. (15) The value of teachers' knowledge should be realized. (16) Teachers should pursue education wisdom.