Middle school mathematics pre-service teachers’ content knowledge, confidence and self-efficacy

ABSTRACT

It is generally assumed that in order to teach mathematics effectively, middle years teachers ought to have a high degree of knowledge of mathematics and confidence in their ability to do the mathematics as well as self-efficacy to teach it. This study examines the content knowledge, mathematics confidence and self-efficacy of 99 graduate-entry pre-service teachers in an Australian school of education. The findings indicate that, in general, their mathematical content knowledge was not strong. Further, the participants expressed different levels of confidence and self-efficacy for specific concepts, so, while the scale used had high Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, its internal consistency was relatively weak. That is, confidence and self-efficacy were found to be content specific. Further, the participants tended to have confidence and self-efficacy scores that, while low, were inconsistent with their ability to do the mathematics; they tended to overestimate their mathematics competency. The findings with respect to pre-service teachers’ deficit of relevant mathematical knowledge, confidence and self-efficacy have implications for teacher preparation to teach mathematics in the study institution and potentially more broadly in the West.

KEYWORDS:

• Middle school
• mathematics teachers
• content
• confidence
• self-efficacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen Norton

Stephen Norton is a senior lecturer in Mathematics Education at Griffith University. His PhD, completed in 2000 at Queensland University of Technology, explored mathematics teachers’ reasons for avoiding the use of technology in their teaching. Since 1996 he has been lecturing in mathematics teacher preparation courses. Prior to 1996 he taught in secondary schools for 14 years.