Student learning depends on the teacher's actions, which are, in turn, dependent on the teacher's knowledge base—defined here by three components: knowledge of mathematics content, knowledge of student epistemology, and knowledge of pedagogy. The purpose of this study is to construct models for teachers' knowledge base and for their development in an on-site professional development project.
... [Show full abstract] THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Building on Shulman's (1986, 1987) work and consistent with current views (e.g., Cohen & Ball, 1999, 2000), Harel (1993) suggested that three interrelated critical components define teachers' knowledge base: (a) knowledge of mathematics content, (b) knowledge of student epistemology, and (c) knowledge of pedagogy: Knowledge of mathematics content refers to the breadth and, more importantly, the depth of the mathematics knowledge possessed by the teacher, particularly, their ways of understanding and ways of thinking—terms to be defined in the sequel. The content knowledge is the cornerstone of teaching for it affects both what the teachers teach and how they teach it.