The understanding of multiplication of preservice elementary school teachers in Taiwan

The primary purposes of this study were to determine the levels of understanding of multiplication by preservice elementary school teachers; investigate the possible differences in understanding of multiplication by different academic majors; and examine how fundamental mathematics classes or mathematics teaching classes have influenced preservice elementary school teachers' current multiplication understanding.;This research collected both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data were obtained from a measuring instrument score of 147 Taiwanese preservice elementary school teachers. After completion of the measuring instrument, qualitative data were collected from eight preservice elementary school teachers (the highest- and lowest-scoring teachers from each of the four groups who volunteered to participate in this research). For analyzing quantitative data, descriptive statistics and (ANOVA) were performed.;The results showed that Taiwanese elementary school teachers had difficulty in teaching multiplication, especially with the commutative and distributive properties. Results also showed a significant difference in overall understanding by Taiwanese preservice elementary school teachers regarding multiplication with respect to their academic majors. Moreover, there was no significant difference in understanding the meaning of multiplication and symbolic computation of Taiwanese preservice elementary school teachers regarding multiplication with respect to their academic majors, and there was a significant difference in understanding the commutative property and distributive property of Taiwanese preservice elementary school teachers regarding multiplication with respect to academic majors. The qualitative results showed the current multiplication understanding of Taiwanese preservice elementary school teachers was influenced by their mathematics or pedagogical classes.;The research results offered researchers a better understanding of multiplication by Taiwanese preservice elementary school teachers. The researcher will share these results with university instructors in Taiwan who will, hopefully, use these findings to improve their mathematics and mathematics teaching classes. Based on these findings, instructors can, hopefully, find a more appropriate curriculum and develop activities for creating more effective teaching and learning environments for these preservice teachers. Hopefully, these efforts will then translate into better learning on the part of the preservice elementary school teachers so that even though they experienced mathematics traditionally, they will be prepared to teach more effectively.