Pre-service elementary teachers’ geometric subject knowledge and their classroom performance

This conference paper reports preliminary results from a study of trainee primary teachers’ geometric subject knowledge confidence and competence and how this impacts on their classroom performance. Initial analysis of data from the study indicates that the trainees’ knowledge of geometry is poorer than their knowledge of number or algebra. The only statistically significant factor identified so far relating to the trainees’ summative mathematics teaching grade in the classroom is a measure of the trainees’ mathematical background