Intermediate phase mathematics teachers' reasoning about learners' mathematical thinking.

• Main Author: Sheinuk, Louise Carol
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/9803

The focus of this study is to investigate the ways teachers use their content knowledge to understand and address the misconceptions which lie behind learners‟ errors (in their PCK). Misconceptions arise in mathematics and this phenomenon needs to be addressed by teachers. Misconceptions are instrumental for learning, but they are also instrumental in halting learners‟ progress in certain mathematical domains. The study highlights the relationship between how teachers hold content knowledge and use it to reason about learners‟ errors. Six teachers were interviewed following the „think-aloud‟ method (REF) and they reasoned about learners‟ errors in five Grade 6 multiple-choice items. The findings show that different relationships between teachers‟ content knowledge and their pedagogical content knowledge emerge, with special reference to teachers‟ use of conceptual or procedural thinking, when thinking about the knowledge-base of the item. This distinction is used to further analyse the mode of teachers‟ proposed interventions, when they reflect on what would be best suited to address the misconceptions they identified.