A Study Of Primary School Mathematics Teachers’ PCK

With the development of the society, education is paid more and moreattention than ever before. In order to meet the needs of the society and thedevelopment of human，the whole world shows new expectations for teachers’knowledge. The teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is consideredto be an important part of teachers’ knowledge, as well as a part of theprofessional development of teachers that can not be ignored.The main objective of this study was to investigate the differences in thepedagogical content knowledge between primary mathematics novice andexperienced mathematics teachers, to provide advice to enhance noviceteachers’ pedagogical knowledge.In this study, six elementary mathematics teachers of Shanghai wereobserved and interviewed. Through the deeply comparative analysis of noviceand expert teachers in three groups, this study summarized differences ofnovice and expert teachers’ PCK in ifve aspects. In terms of educationalpurposes, novice teachers concerned about the students’ knowledge and skills,but expert teachers pay more attention to the development of students’mathematical ability. In terms of course knowledge，the novice teachers followthe textbook, however, the expert teachers own a clearer structure of thecurriculum and use textbooks to meet their needs. In terms of students’knowledge, the novice teachers pay attention to the skills of calculation whilethe expert teachers attach importance to the essential connotation ofmathematics content. In the knowledge of evaluation, the majority of noviceteacher’s feedback is to afifrm or repeat，however，the expert teachers use moreother means, like making detailed inquiries. In terms of teaching strategies,expert teachers use strategies richer and more effective than novice teachers.Finally, according to the analysis, targeted recommendations wereprovided to improve the PCK of novice elementary mathematics teachers.Novice teachers need in-depth study of the new curriculum, and constantlyinternalized the concept in teaching practice. By listening to high-quality courses and making discussions in teaching and research activities, noviceteachers can learn experiences from others to enrich their PCK. Last but notlest, novice teachers should constantly reflect on their own teaching practic toenhance their PCK.