Views of Pre-service Primary School Teachers About the Integration of Children's Literature in Mathematics Teaching

Abstract

The integration of children's literature in mathematics teacihng and learning has important pedagogical benefits, but many factors are effective in integrating children's literature into mathematics education. These factors include teachers’ perspectives, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and eagerness to implement it. It is thought that if teacher training programs cover courses on the use of children’s literature books or other products, it would positively affect their attitudes towards such a practice. The aim of this study is to examine the opinions of preservice primary school teachers about the integration of children's literature in mathematics teacihng and learning. The views of the participants were collected before and after the use of a course outline based on the integration of mathematics with children’s literature. The study was designed in a qualitative research design, and the opinions of the preservice teachers were evaluated extensively through the case study. The participants identified by convenience sampling method are 98 pre-service teachers who were studying in the last year of the teacher training program at a public university. The data of the study were obtained through mathematics lesson plans and open-ended questionnaires developed in relation to children's literature. The items in the first form were concerned with the experiences of the preservice teachers about integration of children’s literature in mathematics, their views on the selection process of children's books and their expectations and evaluations regarding the practice. In the second form aimed to share the experiences of the participants following the implementation and to get their opinions about the teaching process which reflected the relationship between children's literature and mathematics. The data were analysed by using the descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that the views of the participants’ are grouped into following four dimensions: book selection criteria and process, pedagogical effect, integration process, possible barriers and limitations. It is found that the participants have difficulty in choosing children’s books that provide children opportunities for learning mathematics. Following the implementation, they emphasized the pedagogical benefits of the practice such as increasing children’s motivation and interests in learning mathematics. During the integration process they mostly made use of the context of the books. Some of the participants employed the books for the purposes of teaching mathematical concepts and skills. However, the books were mostly used to get attraction, make courses more fun and increase student motivation. The participants stated that they had difficulties selecting and relating the books with mathematics subjects, and finding enough time for implementation. In order to use children's books as an effective tool to support conceptual understanding in mathematics teaching process, preservice and inservice teachers should be provided with necessary training and experience.