Paper presented at SEAMEO Regional Centre for Education's International Conference on Science and Mathematics in Penang, Malaysia on 6-8 December, 2005.

THE SOURCES OF PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE (PCK) USED BY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS DURING INSTRUCTIONS:

A CASE STUDY

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the sources of knowledge as stated in the components of the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), namely; the content knowledge, the general pedagogical knowledge, the specific pedagogical knowledge and contextual knowledge among the secondary school’s mathematics teachers. The study involved four teachers who taught Form Four’s KBSM mathematics. Two of them were novice teachers while the other two could be described as advanced beginners according to Berliner’s category (1986). The study’s data were obtained through interviews, observations and documents. Each participant was interviewed at least six times by using the five interviewing protocols. In addition, three sessions of observations in the classroom were also conducted as well as the analysis of the documents related to the teaching and learning of Trigonometry. The study revealed the novice and advanced beginners teachers’ lack of knowledge concerning the component of content knowledge especially relating to the aims of mathematics education, the aims and objectives of the KBSM mathematics curriculum and the syntactic structural knowledge. As far as the general pedagogical knowledge were concerned, both groups of teachers displayed a good mastery of them where the teaching and time management was adequate, had the ability to conduct a two-ways interaction and were well-versed with the problems students encountered in learning mathematics. In the area of specific pedagogical knowledge, both groups of mathematics teachers were found to use various teaching strategies which were deemed appropriate to the learning of Trigonometry. However, the teaching methods employed were typical and limited to exposition, questioning and answering questions orally, giving students exercises to do, a bit of monitoring and finally a homework was assigned. The novice mathematics teachers seemed to rely only on textbooks and examination revision books to prepare for the planning of their lessons. Remedial activities were carried out in the classroom through monitoring and students themselves solved the problems given on the board. The teachers’ contextual knowledge did not really help in improving the novice and advance begginers teaching qualities since they were not given the opportunity to attend any professional development programme. Furthermore, they seldom interacted with their colleagues to discuss matters concerning the teaching of mathematics in school. It was also found that teaching experiences of less than two years did not really contribute to the improvement of their teaching. They were able to control the students’ discipline in the classroom but still lacked the skills to motivate students and helped foster positive attitudes toward the learning of mathematics. This study also discussed the several implications that arise from the findings and also suggestions to improve the standard and quality of the mathematics education programmes in the local public institutions of higher learning (IPTA). 

Presented at

CoSMEd 2005
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
“Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap In Science and Mathematics Education: The Challenge to Change”
6 - 8 December 2005
SEAMEO Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics, Penang, Malaysia
www.recsam.edu.my