An Investigation Into The Knowledge Of Triangle Of Junior High School Math Teachers In Urumqi

Triangle,as a critical content of “figure & geometry”,a section in the textbook on mathematics of junior high school in Compulsory Education,is the basis for students to further study other geometric figures.Though the teaching of geometry is a frequently-studied topic on junior high school mathematics,research into the teaching of triangle is relatively rare.This paper studies the present teaching situation of the content of triangle of junior high school teachers analyzed in three dimensions including Subject,Students and Teaching,based on investigation to teachers in junior high schools in Urumqi,the capital of Xinjiang Autonomous Region.This paper conducts a survey through a questionnaire titled “A Questionnaire of teaching knowledge of triangle of junior high school mathematics teachers”,which is designed on three dimensions including Subject,Students and Teaching,with reference of testing types and the scope provided by Bao Yinxia in her Ph.D.thesis.The paper studies the present situation and specific performance of the teaching of triangle of junior high school teachers,based on analysis on 150 questionnaires distributed to 11 middle schools in Urumqi,recordings of 30 classes of 5 math teachers in junior middle school and interviews with 16 teachers who are different in gender,teaching experience,educational background and school types.The results show that: the overall performance of junior middle school teachers is not ideal,though great differences exist among individuals.Among the three dimensions,the knowledge of Subject is the one the teachers are least familiar with,which shows that:(1)Teachers are not fully able to analyze the teaching contents,(2)and lack in-depth understanding of the knowledge structure of triangle.The dimension of Student is the one the teachers are generally good at,which shows that:(1)Teachers are able to identify and understand the knowledge and concept students have known or yet to know;(2)teachers are able to find the degree of learning difficulties and cognitive order;(3)teaches are good at recognizing the learning difficulties,while not so familiar with the causes of learning difficulties.The dimension of Teaching is the one the teachers are good at,which shows that:(1)most teachers show a great teaching ability of geometric proof,and attach more importance to students' participation in classes as required by the New Curriculum Reform;(2)methods of multimedia technology and modern information technology are commonly used during teaching;(3)some teachers could not apply the targeted teaching methods in accordance to students' learning difficulties,though most teachers know well the teaching difficulties and the cause of students' learning difficulties;(4)some teachers are used to apply simplistic mathematical strategies and representations;(5)some teachers have a weak awareness of providing students with evaluation and feedbacks.Based on the above conclusions,some suggestions are given in this paper in order to offer certain references for junior middle school mathematics teachers in Urumqi to improve the teaching performance in terms of the knowledge of triangle.