An investigation into the profile of Ghanaian high school mathematics teachers' knowledge for teaching algebra and its relationship with student performance.

摘要

Available literature on teaching and student performance is replete with evidence that the teacher is one of the most important factors that influence student performance, especially in the developing world. In spite of this, there is widespread disagreement among researchers about which aspect of teachers' subject matter knowledge best relates to student performance. Several studies that have attempted to establish this link have relied on proxy measures of teacher knowledge (e.g., the number of university courses taken). In addition, various conceptualizations of teacher knowledge have presented it as a domain neutral domain. Consequently, there is the need for re-conceptualization of teacher knowledge in ways that is both domain specific and lends itself to some form of direct measurement instead of by proxy. One of the ground-breaking works in this direction is currently being done by researchers in the Knowledge of Algebra for Teaching (KAT) project at Michigan State University.;Through analyses of research literature and videos of teaching, researchers in the KAT project have hypothesized that there are three types of knowledge for teaching high school algebra: knowledge of school algebra, advanced knowledge of mathematics, and teaching knowledge. In addition, the KAT project is currently developing and validating instruments to measure their conceptualization. This study used the KAT project's conceptualization as the framework. Rather than rely on proxy measures of teacher knowledge, the study also adapted the instruments developed by the KAT project.;This study investigated whether the KAT conceptualizations could be corroborated in Ghana. It also examined the differences in the knowledge for teaching algebra among in-service and prospective high school mathematics teachers in Ghana. In addition, this study investigated how Ghanaian high school teachers' knowledge for teaching algebra is related to the performance of their students.;In all, 1565 high school elective mathematics seniors from eight public schools in Ghana, as well as 38 mathematics teachers from these schools participated in the study. In addition, 301 university seniors comprising 132 mathematics, 44 statistics and 125 mathematics education majors participated in the study. Factor Analysis of data from this study did not corroborate the three hypothesized types of knowledge. In addition, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) conducted on the data revealed that in-service teachers performed best on both instruments used in the study. Finally, Linear Regression performed revealed that student performance is positively related to teachers' advance knowledge. However, the relationship was found not to be significant. In the light of the findings, recommendations for further research have been made.