Effect of Self-Evaluation on Pre-service Mathematics Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Language of Mathematics

Abstract

Mathematics is a universal language and mathematics teachers are responsible for teaching this language. However, teachers generally ignore knowledge and skills of mathematical language and this may be explained by Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy theory (Gray, 2004). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of self-evaluation of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers on their self-efficacies with regard to language of mathematics by using the mixed method sequential explanatory design. The data was obtained with the developed instrument quantitatively in the first phase and qualitatively in the second phase. The results of the first phase indicated that there was no significant difference between pretest and posttest self-efficacy scores. On the other hand, the results of the second phase indicated that participants perceived the language of mathematics as using native language or using pedagogical approaches and they weren’t aware of the responsibility of teaching the language of mathematics besides mathematical concepts.