Ett urval av svenska matematiklärares matematiska kunskap – En kvalitativ undersökning vid Göteborgs Universitet.

Abstract

This thesis looks upon a sample of Swedish teachers in middle school teaching mathematics and their capabilities in computing and pedagogically representing a mathematical problem based on division by fractions. The result has also been compared to Chinese teachers’ performance on the same task. The study is explorative in its nature and looks upon teachers’ mathematical knowledge as a potential dependent variable explaining decreasing performance in Swedish pupils’ mathematics performance. The study builds upon a framework developed by Liping Ma (2010) and the qualitative data collected shows that Swedish teachers seem to be way behind their Chinese colleagues when it comes to mathematical knowledge and conceptual understanding. The respondents had difficulties in computing in accordance with mathematical laws and logic. Every one of the respondents except for one failed completely in coming up with a logical representation, a pedagogical story, for a simple division of fractions problem. Here the Swedish teachers were well outperformed by the Chinese teachers. Even though the sample is not big enough for making any generalization over a bigger population, it seems evident that the understanding needed for transferring mathematical knowledge to the next generation/-s is not good enough to be satisfactory. Keywords: Division by fractions, Liping Ma, teaching mathematics, profound understanding of fundamental mathematic