Relationship between Chinese Pre-service Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge, Pedagogical beliefs, and Noticing

While the theoretical discourse posits teacher knowledge and beliefs as critical factors influencing teacher noticing, few studies have empirically explored the interrelationship among these constructs within a single investigation, particularly in a non-Western context. This paper examines the relationships among teacher knowledge, pedagogical beliefs, and teacher noticing, with a specific focus on the mediating role of beliefs between teacher knowledge and noticing, based on a study involving 583 pre-service mathematics teachers within the Chinese context. The findings indicate that in contrast to common expectations and earlier results pre-service teachers’ mathematical content knowledge (MCK), rather than their mathematical pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK), exhibits a stronger correlation with teachers’ noticing. However, as expected, transmissive pedagogical beliefs significantly and negatively correlate with noticing, while constructivist pedagogical beliefs demonstrate a significant positive relationship with noticing. Furthermore, the study reveals that teacher knowledge and pedagogical beliefs distinctly influence various facets of teacher noticing confirming theoretically derived assumptions. Notably, pedagogical beliefs serve as a significant mediator between teacher knowledge and noticing. The findings suggest that apparently societal and cultural norms, alongside teaching experience, moderate the relationships among teacher knowledge, beliefs, and noticing.