Investigation of pre-service primary school teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge through transition between representations

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the pre-service teachers’ transitions between representations and to make inferences about their pedagogical content knowledge. The participants in the study, which was designed as a case study, were 92 senior pre-service teachers attending a state university in Turkey. For data collection, two problems used for fourth-graders in the assessments held by TIMSS in 2007 and 2011 were applied. The participants solved these problems according to their own level and the level of fourth graders. Content analysis was conducted on the collected data. Pre-service teachers dominantly used symbolic (algebraic) representations in their solutions in line with their own level. On the other hand, in their solutions at the level of fourth-graders, a decrease was observed in their use of representations, particularly in the ticket problem in which they experienced difficulties. The rate of using suitable representations in the cake problem was found to be higher. Nearly 30 % of the pre-service teachers managed to solve both of the problems by using representation(s) suitable for the level of primary fourth-graders, as they had sufficient pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).