Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Interrelationships between teachers' content knowledge of rational number, their instructional practice, and students' emergent conceptual knowledge of rational number

Millsaps, Gayle Maree

Abstract Details

2005, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Educational Theory and Practice.
Previous studies using quantitative methods have attempted to correlate teachers’ content knowledge with students’ acquisition of subject matter knowledge. Lack of highly significant correlations between teachers’ content knowledge and students’ achievement seems to indicate that increasing the level of teachers’ content knowledge has limited influence on students’ emergent subject matter knowledge. More recent studies using qualitative methods have shown teachers’ content knowledge influences teachers’ instructional practice. However, few studies using qualitative methods have examined the interrelationships between teachers’ content knowledge and students’ emergent subject matter knowledge. This study was developed from a theory on the interrelationships between teachers’ content knowledge of rational numbers and students’ emergent conceptual knowledge of rational numbers. Two teachers were chosen from among four candidates based on the differences in their written responses on a test of rational number (fraction) knowledge and their location in the same school system. The case studies of these two teachers were generated from data collected through: (a) observations and videotapes of each classroom as the teachers conducted their unit on rational numbers, (b) interviews with the teachers and selected students from their classes, and (c) teachers’ and students’ responses on a test of rational number knowledge. The cases were compared and contrasted to illuminate and illustrate the theoretical model of interrelationships and intervening contributions and limitations of interrelationships between teachers’ content knowledge of rational numbers and students’ emergent conceptual knowledge of rational numbers. The cases confirm the theoretical model that interrelationships between teachers’ content knowledge and students’ emergent conceptual knowledge are weak. The cases confirm the interrelationships suggested by the model between teachers’ content knowledge and instructional practice. Teachers’ content knowledge contributes to, but is not equivalent to, their pedagogical content knowledge. Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge mediates/filters the impact of teachers’ content knowledge on their design of the instructional environment. As the model would predict, the varieties of students’ emergent conceptual knowledge across and within the instructional environments do not replicate the teachers’ content knowledge. The model suggests that students’ prior knowledge, predispositions, and /or experiences could mediate/filter the contributions of instructional practice to students’ emergent conceptual knowledge.
Douglas Owens (Advisor)
358 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Millsaps, G. M. (2005). Interrelationships between teachers' content knowledge of rational number, their instructional practice, and students' emergent conceptual knowledge of rational number [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124225634

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Millsaps, Gayle. Interrelationships between teachers' content knowledge of rational number, their instructional practice, and students' emergent conceptual knowledge of rational number. 2005. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124225634.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Millsaps, Gayle. "Interrelationships between teachers' content knowledge of rational number, their instructional practice, and students' emergent conceptual knowledge of rational number." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124225634

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)