Designing a questionnaire for assessing the didactic-mathematical knowledge on elementary algebraic reasoning

Abstract

Promoting algebraic thinking in elementary school pupils requires implementing specific training activities for teachers, which in turn involves developing tools to assess their didactic-mathematical knowledge about this subject. In this paper we present results of a study aimed to build a questionnaire for assessing the didactic-mathematic knowledge of prospective primary teachers on elementary algebraic reasoning. We describe the categories of algebraic knowledge (structures, functions and modeling), as well as the categories of didactical knowledge (epistemic, cognitive, instructional and ecological facets) taken into account. We also describe and analyze the tasks included in the questionnaire reporting its content validity.