Secondary Teachers’ Knowledge and Beliefs about Subject Matter and their Impact on Instruction

This article investigates teachers' subject-matter knowledge and its interrelations with pedagogical content knowledge in the context of teaching the concept of function. During the first phase of data collection, 152 prospective secondary teachers completed and open-ended questionnaire concerning their knowledge about function. In the second phase, an additional 10 prospective teachers were interviewed after responding to the questionnaire. The analysis shows that many of the subjects did not have a modern conception of function. Appreciation of the arbitrary nature of functions was missing, and very few could explain the importance and origin of the univalence requirement. This limited conception of function influenced the subjects' pedagogical thinking. Therefore, when describing functions for students, many used their limited concept image and tended not to employ modern terms. In addition, many chose to provide students with a rule to be followed without concern for understanding.

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Subject-Matter Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Prospective Secondary Teachers and the Function Concept

Journal for Research in Mathematics Education ◽

10.2307/749215 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 94 ◽

Cited By ~ 115

Author(s):

Ruhama Even

Keyword(s):

Pedagogical Content Knowledge ◽

Content Knowledge ◽

Secondary Teachers ◽

Subject Matter ◽

Subject Matter Knowledge ◽

Function Concept ◽

Pedagogical Content ◽

Prospective Secondary Teachers

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Modern mathematics and its place in the secondary school

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.50.6.0418 ◽

1957 ◽

Vol 50 (6) ◽

pp. 418-423

Author(s):

Albert E. Meder

Keyword(s):

Secondary School ◽

Secondary Teachers ◽

Subject Matter ◽

Point Of View ◽

Modern Mathematics

Secondary teachers often ask, “What is modern mathematics?” It is new subject matter and a new point of view.

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Words

PMLA ◽

10.1017/s003081290013041x ◽

1935 ◽

Vol 50 (4) ◽

pp. 1320-1327

Author(s):

Colbert Searles

Keyword(s):

Subject Matter ◽

Assistant Professor ◽

The Subject

THE germ of that which follows came into being many years ago in the days of my youth as a university instructor and assistant professor. It was generated by the then quite outspoken attitude of colleagues in the “exact sciences”; the sciences of which the subject-matter can be exactly weighed and measured and the force of its movements mathematically demonstrated. They assured us that the study of languages and literature had little or nothing scientific about it because: “It had no domain of concrete fact in which to work.” Ergo, the scientific spirit was theirs by a stroke of “efficacious grace” as it were. Ours was at best only a kind of “sufficient grace,” pleasant and even necessary to have, but which could, by no means ensure a reception among the elected.

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