Preservice Elementary Teachers' Mathematical Content Knowledge and Their Responses to Students' Mistakes With Fractions

• In Event: Various Math Knowledges of Preservice Teachers

Abstract

Fractions are a difficult topic for students and teacher responses to student mistakes with
fractions influence the quality of student learning. In order to respond appropriately to student
mistakes teachers presumably need to have sufficient mathematics content knowledge. This
study examined the relationship between preservice elementary teachers’ mathematical content
knowledge of fractions and their responses to student mistakes using a mixed methods approach.
It revealed that preservice teachers with higher levels of content knowledge asked more followup
questions to probe students’ thinking and used conceptual methods to respond to student
mistakes. On the other hand, those with lower levels of content knowledge tended to ignore
student mistakes, and if they did respond tended to directly tell students the correct answer.

Authors

• Nan Wu, Texas Tech University

• Jian Wang, Texas Tech University

• Raymond Flores, Texas Tech University