Investigation of Primary Teacher Candidates' Curiosity in Mathematics in Terms of Various Variables

Abstract

Curiosity is essential to scientific discovery and innovation, and more universally, it is a natural and unavoidable characteristic of children. It is shown as a process in which efforts are made to fill the knowledge gap. It is an important element of learning and it increases math achievement. This research reveals the level of curiosity in candidate primary mathematics teachers and discusses the precautions to be taken through various variables. A descriptive survey model was used in this study. This research was carried out during the 2022–2023 academic year. The study group of the research consists of 262 candidate primary school teachers studying at state universities located in the south of Turkey. In the research, "Mathematical Curiosity Scale for Classroom Teachers and Teacher Candidates" and "Personal Information Form" were used as data collection tools. In the study, primary school teacher candidates' gender, type of the high school they graduated from, positive and negative experiences about mathematics throughout their education life, and their level of mathematics curiosity and liking mathematics teachers were examined. According to the research results, primary school teacher candidates have a high level of curiosity about mathematics. Besides, sex generally does not affect curiosity in mathematics. Candidate primary school teachers who have negative experience with mathematics are less curious about mathematics. Primary school teacher candidates who like mathematics teachers are more curious about mathematics.