The relationship between the critical thinking skills and the academic language proficiency of prospective teachers

• DOI: 10.15700/saje.v33n2a639
• Publication Date: 2015-07-03T16:25:59Z
• Authors: M M (Mary) Grosser; Mirna Nel
• Keywords: critical thinking ability; teacher leadership; Activity Theory, collective leadership, decision-making, distributive leadership, hierarchy, leadership styles, power, principals, school climate, teacher leadership; Activity Theory; principals; Critical thinking dispositions; improving critical thinking; hierarchy; critical thinking skills; teacher training; Improving critical thinking; power; teacher training curriculum; Teacher training curriculum; language proficiency; collective leadership; L7-991; critical thinking dispositions; school climate; Critical thinking skills; outcomes for teacher training; pedagogical content knowledge; LC8-6691; Improving academic language proficiency; 05 social sciences; improving academic language proficiency; scale development; Education (General); decision-making; 420; Special aspects of education; critical thinking ability, critical thinking dispositions, critical thinking skills, improving academic language proficiency, improving critical thinking, language proficiency, outcomes for teacher training, teacher training, teacher training curriculum; pedagogical content knowledge, pre-service mathematics teachers, scale development; distributive leadership; Teacher training; Language proticiency; leadership styles; Outcomes for teacher training; pre-service mathematics teachers; 0503 education; Critical thinking ability

The purpose of this study is to develop a scale to determine pre-service mathematics teachers’ perceptions related to their pedagogical content knowledge. Firstly, a preliminary perception scale of pedagogical content knowledge was constructed and then administered to 112 pre-service mathematics teachers who were enrolled in a mathematics teacher education programme. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, item analysis, correlation analysis, internal consistency and descriptive statistic techniques were used to analyse the data. Then validity and reliability of the scale were investigated. The analyses resulted in the development of a five-factor scale of 17 items that was proved valid and reliable. We contend that the scale developed has the merit to contribute to pre-service teachers’ self-awareness by revealing their perceptions regarding their pedagogical content knowledge.Keywords: pedagogical content knowledge, pre-service mathematics teachers,scale development