Describing Elementary School Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the Student and Task Components: With an Emphasis on the Topic of Volume

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 assistant professor at department of educational psychology, Faculty of education and psychology, Alzahra university, Thran,, Iran

2 Faculty of educational psychology, Alzahra university

3 Educational Research and Planning Organization, Institute of Education Studies,

Abstract

The success of any educational system depends on identifying and nurturing the factors that influence student learning. Undoubtedly, one of the most important factors affecting student learning is teachers and their pedagogical content knowledge. Therefore, the present study, using a qualitative approach and a task-based interview method, seeks to describe the pedagogical content knowledge of elementary school teachers regarding the topic of volume. This study utilizes the three-component model of pedagogical content knowledge by Krauss et al. (2008), which includes three components: teaching, student knowledge, and task. The reason for selecting the concept of volume is its foundational role in elementary mathematics textbooks and its wide application in other subjects such as physics and chemistry. This study focuses on two components of the Krauss et al. (2008) model: the student component and the task component. For this purpose, tasks related to the volume topic were designed and implemented along with a general question among six volunteer elementary school teachers who had experience teaching fifth and sixth grades. Findings related to the student component revealed that some teachers lacked a solid grasp of the volume concept, were unfamiliar with teaching guides, had varying interpretations of the term “misconception,” and faced difficulties in diagnosing the root causes of misconceptions. Regarding the task component, analysis showed that most teachers could only provide up to two methods for comparing volumes and just one method for calculating them. Overall, the results highlight the need to enhance teachers’ awareness and understanding of student misconception and task design related to the topic of volume. Based on these findings, several recommendations have been proposed.

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