Uverenja budućih učitelja i vaspitača o prirodi matematike i o učenju matematike

Abstract

University studies, among other things, are aimed at enabling primary school teachers and pre-school teachers to support the development of mathematical competences of young learners. Although mathematics content knowledge is a major component of the professional body of knowledge required for teaching mathematics, teachers' professional beliefs on what mathematics is and how mathematics is learned have a significant mediating effect on teachers' success in providing genuine opportunities for learning meaningful mathematics. The research goal of the study conducted at the beginning of the second semester, when students encounter their first mathematics course for teachers, was to analyze the prospective teachers' beliefs on the nature of mathematics and on mathematics learning. The student questionnaire consisted of parts of the questionnaire used in the international study TEDS-M and of a small number of mathematics items designed to verify the answers given by the questionnaire respondents. The results revealed a difference between the self-professed beliefs of the students and the approaches they used to respond to the mathematics items. These findings point to the need for providing specific learning opportunities within initial teacher education to help future teachers in developing coherent mathematical knowledge for teaching and consistent professional beliefs.