The Future of Education

According to the Norwegian curriculum ([1]), it is in the 3rd grade that students should learn the basics of multiplication, which is one of the four arithmetic operations, therefore it is important that primary school prospective teachers have good knowledge in teaching multiplication ([2]). Inspired by the study by Fishbein et al. (1985) ([3]), where they investigated how Italian students solved word problems on multiplication and division, we have conducted a study in which we investigate how 46 prospective teachers, in the first semester of their teacher education, solve word problems in multiplication. The test was analyzed using a thematic qualitative analysis strategy ([4]), where the analysis is inspired by the study by Giberti & Maffia (2022) ([5]), where we have used the same categories of the prospective teachers’ responses in the analysis as they did with their student responses. Our results indicate that prospective teachers have an incomplete understanding of the concept of multiplication, for example, in one task, 82.6% of those who participated in the study switched the order of multiplier and multiplicand because of the order in the text. In an other task where the text was a little more complex, more varied strategies are expressed and 32.6% of the prospective teachers’ solve the task incorrectly. This indicates that prospective teachers have challenges reading and understanding text tasks in multiplication. Therefore, in teacher education, when working with multiplication, more work should be done with practical contexts and interpretation of text tasks.

Keywords: Text tasks, prospective teachers, multiplication, practical context, solution strategies

REFERENCES

[1]         Utdanningsdirektoratet (2020). Læreplan i matematikk 1.-10. trinn (MAT01-05). Fastsatt som forskrift. Læreplanverket for Kunnskapsløftet 2020. https://www.udir.no/lk20/mat01-05?lang=nob

[2]         Ball, Thames & Phelps (2008). Content Knowledge for Teaching. What makes it Special? Journal of Teacher Education, 59 (5), 389-407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487108324554

[3]         Fischbein, E., Deri, M., Nello, M. S., & Marino, M. S. (1985). The role of implicit models in solving verbal problems in multiplication and division. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 16, 3-17. https://doi.org/10.2307/748969

[4]         Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Sage.

[5]         Giberti, C. & Maffia, A. (2022). Primitive Model of Partitive Division: A Replication of the Fischbein et al. Study. Implementation and replication studies in mathematics education, 2(2), 149-173. https://doi.org/10.1163/26670127-bja10007