Evaluating Prospective Mathematics Teachers' Knowledge Regarding Teaching Strategies Through Teaching Practicum

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate prospective mathematics teachers' knowledge of teaching strategies on geometric objects by observing their instruction through teaching practicum. Because the observation is of prospective teachers' teaching-strategy knowledge in real life contexts, conducting the study in a classroom environment enables this study to get more valid and reliable results. On this basis, we followed an evaluative case study research-design based a on qualitative research paradigm. The participants were seven elementary prospective mathematics teachers studying at a state university in Turkey. In the data collection process, interviews and observations were used, and the data obtained were analyzed via both descriptive and content analyses techniques. The findings suggest that prospective teachers do not have a wide knowledge on the sort of strategies used in teaching geometric objects; they generally adopted traditional methods, and, due to the abstract nature of geometric objects, their instruction were ineffective at clarifying the dimensions of concept. Besides, it is seen that a real-life environment is beneficial in terms of achieving more realistic and indepth results.