ERIC Number: EJ1060297
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-May
Pages: 10
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1073-5836
EISSN: N/A
Mapping the Way to Content Knowledge
Poling, Lisa L.; Goodson-Epsy, Tracy; Dean, Chrystal; Lynch-Davis, Kathleen; Quickenton, Art
Teaching Children Mathematics, v21 n9 p538-547 May 2015
The role of teacher education is to initiate purposeful conversation regarding specific content, to provide the scaffold for which preservice teachers can begin to understand the subject matter for the purpose of teaching, and to acknowledge gaps in their conceptual knowledge (Grossman and Shoenfeld with Lee 2005). Teacher candidates may enter elementary education programs with basic understanding of whole-number operations, but they may lack understanding deeper connections. Building true conceptual understanding requires that individuals learn to make meaningful connections between mathematical concepts. Solidifying connections between concepts and content must be at the forefront of instructing preservice teacher candidates. A learning tool that is irreplaceable to reveal these connections is a visual representation created by the learner: a concept map. Through concept mapping, preservice teachers demonstrate a conceptual as well as procedural understanding of the content and may show how they view connections between ideas. (A bibliography is included. Two additional pages of subtraction tasks are appended to this article online.)
Descriptors: Mathematics Instruction, Mathematics Teachers, Preservice Teacher Education, Preservice Teachers, Concept Mapping, Mathematical Concepts, Concept Formation, Knowledge Base for Teaching, Subtraction, Video Technology, Content Analysis, Elementary School Mathematics
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1502. Tel: 800-235-7566; Tel: 703-620-3702; Fax: 703-476-2970; e-mail: orders@nctm.org; Web site: http://www.nctm.org/publications/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A