Secondary school teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching quadratic equations: a case of three secondary schools in Katete district.

In the last three decades, there has been a growing interest on how teachers utilise the specialised knowledge for mathematical knowledge in classroom instruction. This study was an inquiry focusing on mathematical knowledge for teaching quadratic equations. The study was a qualitative and sought to answer the following three (3) research questions: (1) What subject matter knowledge did the three mathematicsteachers possess when teaching quadratic equations? (2) What strategies did the three mathematics teacher use in teaching quadratic equations? and (3) How did the three mathematics teachers’ address pupils’ errors and misconceptions when teaching quadratic equations..?.Data were collected using questionnaires, pre-lesson interviews, lesson observations and post-lesson interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data according to the components identified in the study and these were were subject matter knowledge, knowledge of pedagogy, and knowledge of learner conceptions.The findings of the study revealed that the three teachers had adequate knowledge of the subject matter but was limited to procedural knowledge. Secondary school mathematics teachers’ ability to make appropriate connections among mathematical concepts to generate different solutions and representations for problems, to address learner difficulties and misconceptions effectively and choose appropriate teaching strategies were heavily dependent on the depth and breadth of their subject matter knowledge. All three participants used a similar teaching approach to overcome learners’ difficulties and misconceptions such as going through the examples given. The study recommends that teaching instruction should address both procedural and conceptual knowledge as they complement each other for effective lesson delivery. The study contributes to an emerging study of MKT by consolidating the importance of the three components identified in the study namely: subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and the knowledge of learner conceptions in the teaching of quadratic equations.

Keywords: Mathematical knowledge for teaching, subject matter knowledge, pedagogy, procedural knowledge, conceptual knowledge