The Complexities of Mathematical Knowledge and Beliefs within Initial Teacher Education: An Analysis of Three Cases

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I think it is a very interesting piece of research, but the sample is very small and unrepresentative. Are you going to do it in the big group? Well, perhaps there are very interesting answers that will help you to improve even the teaching of teachers in training. Good luck!

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The knowledge of the primary education teacher in training is a very interesting topic and one that, in my opinion, should continue to be discussed. Although there are many models of teacher knowledge, I keep asking myself: What should a future primary school teacher know? Which leads me to wonder what is the best way to prepare them?

This article links two aspects that I consider very interesting, knowledge and beliefs. The proposed results show that there is a relationship between these two aspects, which is interesting to continue investigating.

I consider that the article is very well presenting and the theoretical and methodological aspects are explained very well. As for the results, apart from being interesting, they are very well understood and the way they are presented seems very accurate to me. The conclusions are good and precise, although I need a little more reflection, that is, to draw conclusions with a view to improving the training of future teachers.

I congratulate the authors for this research and encourage them to continue in this line with a larger sample.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The title is a little confusing, it creates the impression that a new analytical framework is presented, while this is not the case, the three cases were analyzed according to Lo's analytic framework. It would be better to change the title in order to better reflect the content of the article. Suggestion: The Complexities of Mathematical Knowledge and Beliefs within Initial Teacher Education in Hong Kong: The analysis of Three Cases. 

In paragraph 4.1 you should also mention that there are evidence that beliefs are influenced by several factors that are independent of the teacher education program (according to [1]), so the present study completes also the findings from [1].  

It is not very clear how the cases presented imply the second issue you emphasized "culture plays a pivotal role in shaping beliefs and knowledge". It would be helpful for the reader to detail this connection not only in Natalies's case.

In the current form I don't see very clear how can you give a brief answer to the research questions. Maybe it would be helpful to formulate some  comprehensive yet brief answers to the research questions in the discussion part as a "takeaway message of the paper".  

The figures must be rearranged somehow to fit the pagewidth.

Minor typos: line 66- Frameworks for Analyzing Mathematical , 160 - selected, 161 - participate in this research,  189- structured  247 - summarized, 275- centered 281- memorize, 298 - curriculum 344 - centered, 438-emphasized, 466-summarize, 468-centered,  483 - centered, 493 - Similar, 498 - summarized, 519 - centered, 565 - analyzing, 593-existing, 624-qualitative,  631 - philosophy,  632 - everyone, 725-knowledge, 758- mathematics

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf