Investigation Of Maseru Elementary Teachers' Mathematical Content Knowledge In Whole Number Operations And Its Influences

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the mathematical content knowledge of Maseru elementary teachers in whole number operations.Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used in the survey.The qualitative involved a pilot study of six teachers from six elementary schools and posttest interviews of 15 participants,while the quantitative data was collected through the teachers' written test administered to 194 elementary teachers.The pilot study was aimed to test the reliability of the study instruments.The written test evaluated the MCK of the participants based on three fields of mathematics learning: knowing,application and reasoning.The implementation of these two methods was also to carry about the authenticity of evidence and the credibility of the study findings.The formulation of data collection instruments was based on the three combined frameworks to substantiate the evaluation model for Maseru District elementary teachers: Shulman's framework,TIMSS's framework)and TEDS-M's framework.These various approaches in this study facilitated the true reflection of teachers' beliefs and their MCK level in the concept of whole number operations.The statistical tests were carried,and the results revealed the that the teachers' shallow mathematical content knowledge is caused by the aspects that are identified by this study.These aspects influencing the elementary teachers' MCK are found to be lack of subject area specialization,lack of professional development programs,teaching experience,teachers' collaboration and teachers' evaluation models.It is therefore recommended that Lesotho Ministry of Education take an initiative to address these influencing aspects through;formulating regular teachers' professional development programs,school administrations enforcing teachers' collaboration,allocating the teachers' evaluation tasks to the professional educational practitioners,and implementation of subject specialization and review of the curriculum and employment policies which abolishes the employment of COSC certificate holders.Most notably,the study illustrates the main areas that should be considered and implemented in the field of elementary mathematics education in order to enhance the teachers mathematical content knowledge.