Manifesting of pedagogical content knowledge on trigonometry in teachers’ practice

Abstract

Although trigonometry is an important section in secondary school mathematics curricula, many teachers find it challenging to teach as a result of insufficient pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Therefore, the aim of this article was to report on how PCK on trigonometry manifests itself in teachers' practice. This exploratory case study was underpinned by the mathematics knowledge for teaching (MKT) model of Hill et al. (2008). Twelve teachers were purposefully selected from six township schools. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured one-on-one interviews, lesson plans, assessment tasks, and lesson observations; and analyzed using content analysis. The findings show that four elements of PCK on trigonometry manifest themselves in teachers’ practice, namely knowledge of subject matter, knowledge of teaching strategies, knowledge of students’ conceptions and knowledge of curriculum, but varied in levels of sufficiency. Awareness of these variances forms a useful basis for planning developmental opportunities that could address shortcomings in PCK on trigonometry in teachers’ practice. This study adds to few studies in PCK in mathematics by providing empirical evidence on how PCK on trigonometry manifests itself in teachers’ practice.