A Survey On The Current Status Of Tibetan High School Mathematics Teachers' Knowledg

Research on teachers’ knowledge has long been intensified.Abroad,mainly Shulman,Grossman,Ball and many other scholars have conducted more systematic studies on teachers’ knowledge.In China,scholars such as Lin Chongde and Ma Yunpeng have also conducted research on this issue.However,research on teacher knowledge also needs to focus on specific subjects and specific school sections,and needs to be more focused.Especially at the senior secondary level,which is under pressure to advance to higher education,it is necessary to understand the level of teachers’ expertise in order to identify problems in education and try to suggest countermeasures.Most of the previous analyses of the current state of mathematics teachers’knowledge have been conducted from a qualitative perspective on the test papers of the teachers under test.Even if there is quantitative analysis,classical measurement theory is generally used.We know that although classical measurement theory is widely used,it has a strong dependence on the subjects,while item response theory can better compensate for its limitations.This study focuses on the current knowledge of Tibetan high school mathematics teachers and aims to examine how well do Tibetan high school mathematics teachers have professional knowledge?What are the specific performances of teachers on different sub-dimensions of expertise?And how do different types(teaching experience,title,gender,and whether they have received awards or honours)of teachers differ in terms of mathematics teacher knowledge and the different sub-dimensions?This study uses data from the 2019 major research project on Tibetan science teachers’ teaching competencies undertaken by the Centre for the Development of Ethnic Education of the Ministry of Education in the Tibet Autonomous Region.Through mathematics test papers,questionnaires and interview analysis,the current professional knowledge of 426 Tibetan high school mathematics teachers was investigated and studied.Firstly,by combining classical measurement theory and item response theory,and using software tools such as Conquest and SPSS,the mathematics test papers were analysed for quality to derive item difficulty,discrimination,goodness of fit and teacher competence values,thus reflecting more objectively the professional knowledge level of Tibetan mathematics teachers.Secondly,this study provides an in-depth analysis of the differences between different types of teachers in terms of mathematics teacher knowledge and the five sub-dimensions of teacher knowledge(mathematics subject knowledge,mathematics teaching knowledge,mathematics curriculum knowledge,multicultural knowledge,and general pedagogical knowledge)through the basic information of teachers in the questionnaire.Finally,the interviews of six Tibetan high school mathematics teachers were collated and analysed to further explore the problems of Tibetan teachers in the development of mathematics teacher knowledge.The following conclusions were drawn from this study:(1)The overall teacher knowledge of Tibetan high school mathematics teachers was good,but their scores in the dimensions of mathematics pedagogical knowledge and multicultural knowledge were not optimistic.(2)There were significant differences in the overall level of teacher knowledge among mathematics teachers of different teaching ages.On the sub-dimensions,teachers of different teaching ages differed significantly in their knowledge of mathematics subjects,mathematics teaching knowledge,and mathematics curriculum knowledge.There was a trend of "gradual increase in the level of knowledge of mathematics teachers in the 1-5 year old group,with a peak in the 11-15 year old group,and then a gradual decrease".(3)There were significant differences in the overall level of mathematics teachers’ knowledge and the five sub-dimensions among teachers with different job titles,and extremely significant differences in the mathematics curriculum knowledge dimension.The level of mathematics curriculum knowledge increased steadily from Level 3,Level 2,Level 1,and Senior Level in that order.(4)There was no significant difference in the overall level of mathematics teachers’ knowledge by gender,but there was a significant difference in the mathematics curriculum knowledge sub-dimension;whether teachers had received honours or awards in education and teaching during their teaching career had a significant difference in the overall level of mathematics teachers’ knowledge,and the difference in the mathematics curriculum knowledge sub-dimension was extremely significant.Based on the above findings,this study makes the following recommendations with regard to the enhancement of Tibetan high school mathematics teachers’knowledge and teachers’ professional development:(1)To enhance the focus on the learning of different dimensions of Tibetan mathematics teachers’ knowledge and raise teachers’ awareness of professional development.(2)Strengthen the relevance of the content of mathematics teachers’ training in Tibet and rely on textbook research.(3)To build an "Internet+education" model of teacher training that combines online and offline activities to promote the overall improvement of teachers’ professional knowledge.