Mathematics Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge Involving the Relationships between Perimeter and Area

Abstract

This study aims to investigate and compare mathematics teachers’ knowledge of pedagogical content, knowledge of students’ understanding and knowledge of instructional strategies, subcomponents of pedagogical content knowledge, student errors in the relationship between perimeter and areas in rectangles, squares, and parallelograms. 10 pre-secondary school in-service mathematics teachers and 10 prospective mathematics teachers participated in the study. The qualitative case research approach was used. To collect the data, an interview form consisting of four questions showing student errors related to perimeter and area was prepared. The participants were asked to comment on the questions given in the form, and their answers were recorded. Later, they were asked to write down their answers to these questions. According to the outcomes, there is a lack of knowledge of students’ understanding and knowledge of instructional strategies, which are the subcomponents of the pedagogical content knowledge of prospective mathematics teachers. Moreover, prospective teachers are found to be incompetent as regards the necessary mathematical subject matter knowledge. To prevent difficulties, when the concepts of perimeter and area are taught, instead of giving formulae initially, concrete materials or real-life examples about these concepts should be provided.

Keywords

• pedagogical content knowledge
• perimeter
• area
• mathematics teachers
• prospective mathematics teachers