Anne Tossavainen: Prospective elementary teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching fractions – a new framework for enhancing their fraction knowledge?

Aika: Pe 1.11. 8.30-9.15

Paikka: M110 Metria

Esittäjän affiliaatio: Luleå University of Technology

Abstrakti:

Fractions are an important but difficult content area in elementary school mathematics. Many future elementary teachers enter teacher education with limited knowledge of fractions, which presents a challenge for teacher education programs aiming at enhancing prospective teachers’ knowledge to teach fractions effectively. This presentation focuses on the results of my doctoral thesis that characterizes prospective elementary teachers’ knowledge for teaching fractions. In the thesis, the topic is investigated in light of the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) framework in a Swedish context and the concept of mathematical identity is also addressed.
The findings highlight substantial differences between the future elementary teachers in their subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge domain of fractions, revealing difficulties in both their procedural and conceptual knowledge. Moreover, incoherent fraction knowledge occurs across the different knowledge categories included in the MKT framework. The findings also reveal uncertainty in relation to work with fractions and prospective teachers’ mathematical identities.

A new framework for the analysis of different aspects of fractions is also devised in the thesis. The framework is based on core aspects of fractions in four categories: interpretations, representations, procedures and notions. My presentation also focuses on suggestions how to use the framework in teacher education and further research on fractions.