Portuguese pre-service elementary teachers knowledge of geometric transformations: an exploratory study

Abstract

No one questions the fact that teachers’ knowledge plays a crucial role in teaching. Research on teachers’ knowledge indicates that content knowledge is influential on instruction. Even though there is plenty of research on teachers’ knowledge of number and operations, the same doesn’t happen with geometry. In Portugal, a new mathematics programme for elementary school introduces geometric transformations from 1st grade. Since this is a rather new topic in the elementary curriculum, it seems important to understand what knowledge do (future) teachers have on the topic. In this paper we present findings from an exploratory study, conducted with future elementary teachers designed to evaluate their knowledge on geometric transformations.