Journal of Educational Sciences > Volume 26, No. 2, 2014

The Balance between the Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge for Elementary Mathematics Teachers in Saudi Arabia and the Influencing Factors / Khalid Khashan, Refat Kandeel, Mohammed Khashan, Mohammed Alnatheer, Misfer Alsalouli

The study investigated the balance between procedural and conceptual knowledge of mathematics teachers at the elementary school in SA and the factors affecting it. The sample consisted of (273) teachers, selected randomly from three different cities. The study showed that the teachers had a tendency to use procedural knowledge more than conceptual knowledge. The results indicated that the current math textbooks in the elementary school played a positive role in finding a balance between procedural and conceptual knowledge. But this did not help in changing the teachers’ behavior in providing a balance between mathematical knowledge in its aspects procedural and conceptual, or the use of balanced methods in assessing their students’ learning. The most important of which are: the training foundations related curricula, teaching methods, and assessments; the mathematics content at the university; math textbooks that teachers had studied at school; the methods used by faculty members; and the way in which students are evaluated in the elementary stage. The results also indicated that there are no statistically significant differences in the balance between mathematics teachers at the elementary stage due to these variables: (sex, place of work, and years of experience).
Keywords: Teaching strategies, Mathematics content.