Developing A Model for Required Mathematics Knowledge of Elementary Teachers

Investigating the required knowledge for elementary teachers to teach mathematics, has a top priority of research in the field of mathematics teacher education. The reason is that all higher education institutes who have elementary education program leading to a professional degree or teacher certificate, are dealing with prospective elementary teachers who are generalists innature and yet, responsible to set the foundation of mathematics learning of school children. Thus, the professional pre-service and in-service of them is drastically different with those, who are subject specialists. Therefore, the main purpose of thisresearch was to identify the essential mathematics knowledge for elementary teachers. So, a study was designed at three phase. At the 1st phase, a model was designed based of evidences from the research literature. At the 2nd phase, five questionnaires were developed based on the components of this model and were administered on 30 volunteer practicing elementary teachers. At the final phase, a focus group with same teachers was formed independent from other data. The analysis of the data collected via focus group, supported the findings from the analysis of the data gathered through five questionnaires. At the end, the model was modified. In this paper, part of this study is presented.