Investigating the relationships among primary teachers' math profile, math teaching efficacy, and math content pedagogical knowledge

• Main Author: Roettinger, Theresa Marie
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: W&M ScholarWorks 2014
• Subjects: Educational Leadership; Elementary Education; Science and Mathematics Education
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539618606; https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1816&context=etd

Kindergarten, first and second grade teachers play an important role in the development of a student's understanding of mathematics. Consequently, in order to improve student achievement in mathematics, it is important to investigate the relationships that may exist among primary teachers' math profile, math teaching efficacy, and math pedagogy and content knowledge. Participants completed an online survey that included the Math Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (MTEBI) and Math Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) items. Participants provided math profile data through academic demographic questions.;Two-hundred seven respondents completed the survey. Analysis of the data included descriptive statistics, chi-square test of independence, and Spearman rho correlations. The descriptive statistics of this sample population indicated varied math professional learning experiences, reserved mathematic teaching efficacy and little expertise in the knowledge of third grade mathematics. Relationships between frequency of math professional learning and math teaching efficacy emerged as statistically significant and merit further investigation. Additional statistically significant relationships occurred between math content knowledge and math teaching efficacy. The strength of these relationships was moderate and warrant further investigation.