Investigating The MPCK Of Primary School Mathematics Teachers In Guangdong Province

Mathematics Pedagogical Content Knowledge (MPCK) is the key factor which influencing the mathematics teaching and learning, and it also is the core evaluation indicator of mathematics teacher’s professional development. Researching about the teachers’MPCK is not only conforming to the development direction of Chinese mathematics education, but also the urgent demand which deepening the mathematics instruction and teachers’educational reform in China. It has some inspirations for education theory, practice and policy.The purpose of this study is to investigate the status quo of primary school mathematics teacher’MPCK in Guangdong Province. This dissertation mainly discusses two problems:one is the measurement tool for elementary school mathematics teachers’MPCK, the other one is investigating the current situation of the elementary school mathematics teachers’MPCK. The second one is decomposed into three sub-questions:(1) How was the performance of elementary school mathematics teacher’MPCK? What’s the specific performance in three dimensions? (2) Were there any differences among different areas? (3) Did the teachers’ characteristic variables (gender, age, educational background, discipline background, teaching experiences etc.) significantly affect the elementary school mathematics teachers’MPCK?This study established the questionnaire of elementary school mathematics teacher’MPCK, which has three characteristics:applying to large sample research, involving more content domains and localization.Questionnaire and individual interview were adopted in the selection of the elementary school mathematics teachers’MPCK for the investigation. The study got some conclusions:(1) The content dimension of the elementary school mathematics teachers’MPCK is the weakest one dimension comparing with the other two dimension; (2) In contrast, significant differences were found, when teacher from the different districts were compared; (3) The elementary school mathematics teachers’ MPCK in urban-rural fringe and rural areas is very poor.; (4) Age, education background and teaching experiences in different grades have significant influences on the elementary school mathematics teachers’MPCK; (5) Gender, mathematics background, teaching years and professional duty have no significant influences on the elementary school mathematics teachers’MPCK.According to the above research conclusions, the author gave these four suggestions:(1) Narrowing the regional differences of teachers’professional development through strengthening the provincial management; (2) Reconstructing the education curriculum content of elementary school mathematics teachers and increasing the elementary school mathematics teachers’MPCK; (3) Improving teachers’ management system in order to ensure all kinds of mathematics teacher’s professional development opportunities in elementary school; (4)Absorbing the teachers who have different professional backgrounds into the elementary school as mathematics teachers through carrying out more open teacher policy.