Investigation of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers' self-efficacy beliefs about using concrete models in teaching mathematics


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Matematik ve Fen Bilimleri Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: MUTLU PİŞKİN

Eş Danışman: SAFURE BULUT, ERDİNÇ ÇAKIROĞLU

Özet:

The main purpose of the study was to investigate pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ personal efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies about using concrete models in teaching mathematics. Data were collected from the pre-service teachers in the middle of the spring semester of 2008-2009. Pre-service teachers were junior students enrolled in elementary mathematics teaching program at a public university. Six instructional sessions based on using concrete models in teaching mathematics were carried out during a three week period. In this study, the researcher was also the teacher of the instruction at the same time. A survey on pre-service mathematics teachers’ efficacy beliefs about using concrete models was administered to the students before and after the instruction to evaluate the contribution of the instruction on pre-service teachers’ efficacies. After the instruction, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The present study demonstrated that the instruction based on using concrete models had positive contributions on the pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies about using concrete models in teaching mathematics. In addition, results revealed that pre-service elementary mathematics teachers had confidence in themselves about using concrete models both as learners and as teachers. Moreover, they believed that using concrete models in teaching mathematics would have positive consequences in teaching process and students’ learning. However, the interview data indicated that, pre-service teachers had relatively low personal efficacies and outcome expectancies about classroom management, when the concrete models were involved in the instruction.