The implementation of the new mathematical knowledge base in Dutch teacher education institutes for primary education raises a need for curriculum development. Teacher educators have to raise student teachers’ subject matter knowledge to a higher level. In working on this aim teacher educators experience that student teachers often feel uncertain about their mathematical skills and are not very interested in formal and abstract mathematics. Student teachers prefer to focus on mathematical pedagogical content knowledge.
This paper presents two design studies that try to tackle this problem. The first one targets the development of student teachers’ specialized content knowledge (SCK) and the second one focuses on their horizon content knowledge (HCK). Both studies target developing student teachers’ mathematical subject matter knowledge in the perspective of teaching mathematics in primary school. In the studies we established student teachers’ learning environments that kept them involved and motivated, even when they found the mathematics hard to do. Primarily, this attitude supported their mathematical growth, while it also developed their pedagogical skills and insight.
INTRODUCTION