The Knowledge Quartet as an Organising Framework for Developing and Deepening Teachers' Mathematics Knowledge

In this chapter we present some findings from a study which evaluated the effectiveness of one classroom-based approach to the development of elementary mathematics teaching. This approach drew on earlier research into teachers’ mathematical content knowledge at the University of Cambridge, when a framework for the analysis of mathematics teaching - the Knowledge Quartet - was developed. The chapter begins with a rationale for our focus on teachers’ content knowledge in action in the classroom and a brief description of the study which led to the development of the Knowledge Quartet. It then proceeds to a report of the longitudinal study in which this framework was used to identify and develop a group of beginning teachers’ mathematics content knowledge for teaching.