Evaluation of the Epistemic Facet of Didactic-Mathematical Knowledge of Future Mathematics Teachers in a Class Development Using Functions

Abstract

We report here the findings of a work done with fifty preservice teachers, students of mathematics from a Colombian public university. From a follow-up on the progress of students to teachers, we analyzed their difficulties in class development with high school students. The results show ease for the preservice teachers in the recognition of the elements and characteristics of a function, but certain difficulties to connect the elements of their representations. On the one hand, they used didactic materials and adequate semiotic representations, and on the other, they made few congruences between these elements and did not establish connections with elements of the sociocultural context that would allow an in-depth topic analysis. Regarding their knowledge, certain strengths are evidenced in their common and extended knowledge, but there are some difficulties in specialized content knowledge.

Keywords:
Preservice teachers; Epistemic facet; Mathematical didactic knowledge; Functions; Semiotic representations