1999 Volume 4 Number 2
The Sources of Teachers’ Knowledge of Instructional Materals
Fan Lianghuo
Abstract: This study investigated how teachers develop their knowledge of
instructional materials. The research data were collected from 77 mathematics
teachers in three best high schools in the metropolitan area of Chicago, U. S.
through a questionnaire survey, classroom observation and teacher interview. The
findings of this knowledge of instructional materials. Overall, teachers’ own teaching
experience and reflection, and their daily exchanges with their colleagues are the
most important sources; teachers’ attending organized professional activities,
inservice training and experience as school students are the secondarily important
sources; and their reading professional journals and books, and preservice training
are the least important ones. Statistically, the contributions of those three kinds of
sources to the development of teachers’ knowledge of instructional materials are
significantly different.