Abstract
- This paper examines the mathematics content knowledge of pre-service teachers participating in a National Science Foundation project, North Carolina NAEP: Improving Mathematics Content and Methods Courses. Using items from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the project’s goals are to help pre-service teachers: 1) develop mathematical content knowledge; 2) understand students’ mathematical thinking and problem solving; 3) promote understanding and use of assessment tasks. Forty seven pre-service teachers enrolled in a mathematics content class participated in the study reported in this paper. Drawing from interviews with two of these, , the analysis examines the teachers’ mathematical knowledge in the following contexts: using formal knowledge of fractions to solve problems and assessment of hypothetical situations of student work.