Mental mathematics knowledge for teaching of ‘high gain’ pre-service teachers

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Mental mathematics knowledge for teaching of ‘high gain’ pre-service teachers
 
Creator Venkat, Hamsa Mathews, Corin D.
 
Subject Mental Mathematics; SCK; PCK; Jump Strategies; ICT; Jump Strategy mental mathematics; jump strategy; mathematical knowledge for teaching; initial teacher education; South Africa
Description Background: Initial teacher education (ITE) research in South Africa shows gaps in pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) primary mathematics knowledge.Aim: We study the mental mathematics understandings and teaching experiences of three PSTs who achieved high gains for learners they taught mental mathematics to using the Mental Starters Assessment Project (MSAP) jump strategy materials.Setting: The three PSTs, from one urban university, taught the jump strategy to Grade 3 classes in three different Gauteng schools.Methods: Learner pre- and post-tests around the taught unit provided the basis for categorising the three ‘high gain’ PSTs. Extended interviews with each PST were then transcribed. Initial grounded analyses of these data were subsequently overlaid with categories drawn from the mathematical knowledge for teaching literature.Results: All three PSTs indicated relatively strong common content knowledge of jump strategies and connected specialised content knowledge. They also exhibited strong awareness of the MSAP content. They differed in how they saw the relationship between fluency, calculation and equivalence tasks.Conclusion: The study’s findings indicate the need for more explicit attention to the connection between mental maths fluencies and strategic calculation in ITE.Contribution: The study points to ways in which mental mathematics can be understood and taught for strong learning gains.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2024-10-11
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Empirical
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v14i1.1509
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 14, No 1 (2024); 9 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1509/3151 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1509/3152 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1509/3153 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1509/3154
 
Coverage South Africa — 20 years old, woman, white woman and black woman
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Hamsa Venkat, Corin D. Mathews https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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