Introduction: Knowledge about teaching mathematics remains a contentious issue in the preparation of pre-service teachers. This study assessed factors influencing pre-service teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) mathematics in Ghanaian basic schools.Methods: The cross-sectional survey design was adopted for this study. A total of 998 pre-service teachers from ten (10) public colleges of education were sampled via multi-stage sampling technique for the study. Structured questionnaire and unstructured observation schedule were used to conduct the survey. Secondary data was also collected in the form of mathematics test results. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22 was used to analyse the data using descriptive statistics (frequency count, percentage) and inferential statistics (Pearson's correlation, multiple regression, exploratory factor analysis).Results: The study revealed that many pre-service teachers in Ghanaian public colleges of education had weak mathematics content knowledge. The following factors influenced MKT of the pre-service teachers: gender, ways of imparting mathematics knowledge, perception about mathematics as a subject, perception about mathematics teaching and learning and attitudes towards mathematics (p < .05).Conclusions: This study exploring the factors that influence pre-service teachers' MKT suggests that, to be able to build effective mathematics teacher base in any basic school, there must be effective training on factors like gender, perception, and attitude. There is therefore the need for the National Council for Tertiary Education to emphasis on factors that influence MKT besides the content of the college of education mathematics curriculum.
Introduction: Knowledge about teaching mathematics remains a contentious issue in the preparation of pre-service teachers in Ghana. This study explored relationships among entry-level mathematical knowledge (ELMK), mathematics content knowledge (MCK) and mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) scores of pre-service teachers in colleges of education (CoEs) in Ghana. Methods: The cross-sectional survey design was adopted for this study. A total of 998 pre-service teachers from ten (10) public colleges of education were sampled via multi-stage sampling technique. Structured questionnaire and unstructured observation schedule were used for the survey. College mathematics test results were used as secondary data. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics (frequency count, percentage) and inferential statistics (Pearson’s correlation, paired-samples t-test and regression analysis) with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 22. Results: The majority of pre-service teachers in Ghanaian colleges of education had average but relatively weak grades in ELMCK. ELMCK did not significantly predict pre-service teachers’ MCK statistically (p ≥ 0.05) although a statistically significant positive correlation existed between the variables. Although a negative correlation existed between ELMCK and PMCK, ELMCK significantly predicted pre-service teachers’ PMCK statistically (p ≤ 0.05) but the effect size was statistically negligible. Conclusions: This study concluded that, CoEs in Ghana admit pre-service teachers with average but weak grades in ELMK. Therefore, Ghanaian CoEs should structure and introduce PMCK alongside MCK for pre-service teachers. Mathematics tutors in CoEs should organize remedial lessons for pre-service teachers to scale-up their MCK and PMCK that adequately equip them with MKT. Keywords: Entry-level mathematical knowledge (ELMK), mathematics content knowledge (MCK), mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK), mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT), pre-service teachers.
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