Pre-service Teachers' Knowledge of Algebra Teaching for Equity

This study examined validity and reliability of an instrument used to measure the cultural awareness beliefs and problem-solving strategies of pre-service mathematics teachers created by the Knowledge for Teaching Algebra Equitably (KATE) project team at Texas A&M University.

The dissertation was comprised of three journal articles. The first article synthesized literature pertaining to teacher?s cultural awareness knowledge and beliefs for teaching mathematics equitably in the middle grades. A search of the Texas A&M Library database was used to find articles that matched criteria related to instruments that determined information from pre-service mathematics teachers pertaining to cultural awareness knowledge and beliefs, equity, and mathematical content knowledge. An exhaustive meta-synthesis showed that there were no current instruments that matched all of the above criteria.

The second article estimated the reliability and validity of the KATE instrument. Internal consistency reliability for the equity items was estimated to be .77 using Cronbach?s alpha. An alpha value of .6 was used as the baseline for determining suitable internal consistency reliability. Content validity was estimated for the entire KATE instrument by discussing the appropriateness and wording of the items from the Knowledge for Teaching Algebra Equitably (KATE) instrument with a panel of experts reading responses PTs gave on the KATE instrument, and assessing feedback from PTs enrolled in the course. This resulted in the insertion, deletion, and rewording of items. Construct validity was estimated by conducting an exploratory factor analysis of the equity items which estimated six factors.

Lastly, the third article revealed preliminary results from pre-service teachers who participated in the Knowledge for Teaching Algebra Equitably Project at Texas A&M University in the fall of 2011 and fall of 2012. An analysis of the test scores from the pre-service teachers (PTs) from the pre-test to the post-test was done comparing scores from PTs in both semesters. The two groups were not statistically different. The effects of the course on (a) beliefs about equity, (b) problem solving, and (c) teaching problem solving was reported in confidence intervals that showed the equity items were not statistically significantly different, but the problem solving and teaching problem solving items were. A MANOVA was used to determine the difference in teaching problem solving scores was due to semester, race, and class by certification. The adjusted R^(2) values were reported to provide the correlation between the independent and dependent variables.