The preschool teachers’ opinion on teaching geometry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/saecj.vol11.2.2.2022Keywords:
early years, geometry, opinion, teachersAbstract
Teaching geometry in the early years emerges along with maths activities but might be neglected sometimes. This research aims to identify preschool teachers’ opinions on geometry teaching via using semi-structured interviews, and collected data analysed using content analysis. Seven female and three male preschool teachers were participated in the study, who has BA and MA degrees. The data collected data were analysed by separately with each research as considering the aims of content analysis and had common findings. While the participating teachers considered themselves to have self-efficacy to teach geometry, their sufficiency to teach depends on various factors. In terms of shaped included in preschool education programmes, there is some common knowledge around it. In the case of teaching, some difficulties in teaching various shapes, and teaching in various activities are found, and this is related to used materials in teaching. The prominent finding is the participating teachers’ opinions on children’s geometric thinking levels, and some participants have inadequate knowledge about it, which might be the result of their insufficient undergraduate degree. This is also underlined by teachers as having ineffective modules in their undergraduate in terms of being only theoretical and fundamental information. Thus, it is important to provide some ongoing support for teachers to enhance their knowledge to support teaching geometry.
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