The role of teacher in creating learning opportunities in teaching area

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of teacher in terms of pedagogical, pedagogical content and content knowledge in the context of creating learning opportunities in mathematics lesson. While two of the authors conducted the lesson about the concept of area in a fifth grade classroom with 18 students, another researcher observed and video-taped the lessons. The researchers individually analyzed the transcripts in terms of learning opportunities and compared until they reached an agreement on codings. The analyses showed that teachers’ knowledge (e.g., pedagogical content knowledge), orchestrating their own competencies and simplifying and making connections among subjects is very crucial in creating learning opportunities. Therefore, it is important that teachers practice to gain awareness of creating learning opportunities and building professional collaboration.