We train, but how well? Assessing mathematical knowledge for teaching of future Turkish teachers

Abstract

This study aims to assess and compare-at the national and regional sizes-mathematical knowledge for teaching of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers (PEMTs). Participants of the study were composed of 1,367 preservice teachers selected among 21 universities in 12 regions of Turkey. Mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) test, which were developed by TEDS-M project were used to collect the data. The instruments were adapted into Turkish by the researchers. According to results, while there wasn't much differentiation among the regions in terms of the MKT, pre-service teachers in the West Marmara, Mediterranean, and Northeast Anatolia regions are more successful than the other regions. PEMTs' mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) performance was close but somewhat better than their mathematics content knowledge (MCK) performance, in terms of both regions and universities. In the case of the MPCK test, the regions exhibited a more homogeneous picture, while in the case of MCK, the universities did so. Algebra content domain is where the PEMTs' performance is lowest. When we compared the results obtained from this study with published international averages from TEDS-M study, Turkish PEMTs had appreciably higher performance on both MCK and MPCK components.