PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS’ PREPAREDNESS TO DEVELOP MATHEMATICS LITERACY AS A PRECONDITION OF EFFECTIVE PRACTICE

Abstract

In the context of the extensive curriculum reform of initial education documents, the issue of defining mathematical literacy and its relation to other literacy developed in mathematics teaching (eg digital literacy) is again very topical. An important prerequisite is that prospective teachers also know how to develop mathematical literacy among their pupils and what activities are more and less appropriate for it. The aim of the paper is to identify the preparedness of prospective primary teachers to include these activities in their mathematics teaching – how they are able to work with chosen problems in mathematics lessons. The theoretical starting point was the concept of self-efficacy as a prerequisite for well-conducted teaching. The research part of the paper was based on the questionnaire Teachers' Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES). In our case, a 24-item version was applied, that is recommended for trainee students who were supposed to evaluate the claims on a 9-point scale, from “nothing” to “a great deal” (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). The two main research questions were set up: What is the evaluation of self-efficacy for mathematics literacy development among the respondents in the areas of research? and Are there any differences in prospective teachers’ evaluation by study groups? The questionnaire survey was attended by 68 full-time students of elementary school teacher program and elementary school and special education teacher program at the Faculty of Education of Palacky University Olomouc in the academic year 2018/2019. The paper summarizes results from five items of the questionnaire directly related to the preparedness of prospective teachers to develop pupils' mathematical literacy such as helping students to critical thinking, convincing students that they can be successful in mathematics, showing students the practical use of the learned knowledge, verifying that the pupils understand the subject matter and supporting pupils' creativity. Obtain results were positive – students have high self-efficacy level for developing students mathematics literacy. Results were compared according to the student's membership in the study group, and Fisher's combinatorial test was used to analyze the results.