| The intention of this investigation was to determine the type of knowledge, conceptual or procedural, the level of mastery that preservice elementary teachers have of the concept area and the mastery of the instructional sequence that they will use with their students to teach the concept. The constructivist paradigm was used as theoretical framework for this investigation of qualitative and quantitative nature.;In order to determine the type of knowledge about the concept area that preservice teachers have, 47 preservice elementary teachers from Cayey, Rio Piedras and Ponce campuses were administered a written test of 26 problems of area in the form of multiple choice. The participants of the study were doing their educational internship in the grades k--3 or in mathematics in grades 4--6. Two students per campus were selected, according to the test results, classified according to procedural or conceptual knowledge, and their availability, to be interviewed. During the interviews test answers were clarified, and they were asked to explain the instructional sequence that would use with their students to teach the concept.;The results of the study revealed that preservice teachers know the basic processes to determine the area of regular figures, in particular those where they can use the formula A= L W. The study revealed that they do not remember or they incorrectly determine the surface area of solid figures, they can define which is the area (often with the mentioned formula) but cannot explain suitably how they would teach the concept.;This study revealed the necessity to assure the conceptual mastery of mathematical content in preservice teachers. Therefore, it is recommended to develop significant learning experiences in mathematical courses so that it promotes learning with understanding in preservice teachers. In addition, teachers should know the results of investigations on cognitive processes that occur in the development of the concept of area in children. |
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