Comparison of Pre-service Elementary Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge in Teaching for Length Measurement: Turkey and the United States

Abstract

This study investigates pre-service elementary teachers' mathematical knowledge in teaching for length measurement. More specifically, this study compares the foundation and transformation knowledge of pre-service elementary teachers from Turkey and the United States. The current study examines similarities and differences between them by applying the codes of the Knowledge Quartet model with 40 pre-service teachers selected from Turkey and the United States. This study used a test assessing pre-service teachers' mathematical knowledge in teaching about the students' mistakes, difficulties, misconceptions, the reasons for them, and their strategies to overcome them related to the topic of length measurement. The findings indicated that while US pre-service teachers had more secure foundation knowledge in identifying the possible errors, Turkish pre-service teachers showed greater foundation knowledge in identifying the possible reasons for these errors. On the other hand, the pre-service teachers in both countries have similar transformation knowledge to suggest strategies to correct students' errors. These findings might provide some insights about how pre-service teachers' mathematical knowledge may be similar or different in different countries. Furthermore, these similarities and differences might help researchers and teacher educators emphasize the importance of the quality of teacher education programs.

Teachers Underutilize Their Learning Styles in Developing Thought-Provoking Questions: A Case Study

“…Dostov et al (2022), Lee and Hwang (2022), Lo (2020), Umbara et al (2020), and Moffett and Eaton (2018) confirm that visual representation is needed in mathematics, as this subject matter contains a different set of related abstractions. The impact of teachers who cannot transform abstractions into a certain format allows students to link mathematics with what they learned, and then students study without understanding (Coskun & Bostan, 2022;González-Campos et al, 2022). Another consideration affecting Kurnia in emphasizing the use of visual objects is students' cognitive development during the period of concrete operations.…”