Grade R teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge about the development of children’s numerical cognition

M.Ed. (Childhood Education)Abstract: The study aimed to find out what grade R teachers know about children’s number concept development, specifically as proposed by the model of Fritz et al. (2009, 2013). I was motivated to conduct the study by my observations of Grade R classrooms in my work as teacher educator. I had noticed that teachers’ practice in mathematics teaching by way of the four signs of number calculations and some counting - much of which was not age-appropriate. This type of discourse is prevalent in most classes in Soweto schools I have visited as a researcher and as a teacher in the foundation phase. In a teacher development project for grade R teachers, the Meerkat Maths programme, I had the opportunity to investigate how 15 of the participating teachers had progressed during and after the project. I observed teaching in their classrooms and also their engagement in the development project at the university. Based on a framework of teacher career development, I analysed data obtained from interviews and observations. The data were analysed in conventional qualitative content analysis mode. The main finding was that although teachers were able to reflect on the model of number concept development of Fritz et al. (2009; 2013) which they had encountered in the development project, they found it hard to infuse their knowledge into a structured curriculum-in-practice. I concluded that they were not able to rely on their intuitive pedagogy, coupled with the model of number concept development that they had learned, likely due to the strict demands of the school curriculum content with which they had to comply