ERIC Number: ED495503
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Jul
Pages: 6
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
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A Scale for Mathematics and Mathematical Values of Pre-Service Teachers
Durmus, Soner; Bicak, Bayram
Online Submission, Paper presented at the International Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics, (Third, Istanbul, Jul, 2006)
Mathematics, contrary to social sciences, is seen by many as value-free. Implications of different theories on teaching and learning applied to education including mathematics education opened doors to see mathematics in a way that it has its own values. Values can be categorized into three categories: general educational values, mathematical values (rationalism/objectivism, control/progress, openness/mystery), and mathematics educational values (accuracy, clarity, conjecturing, consistency, creativity, effective organization, enjoyment, flexibility, open mindedness, persistence, systematic working). These values are present implicitly rather than explicitly in mathematics classrooms. Teachers demonstrate these values during instruction intentionally or unintentionally. The purpose of the study is to develop a scale to categorize these values into two main categories: constructivist and objectivist mathematics and mathematics educational values. A 40-item scale, a five degree scale, was prepared and applied to pre-service teachers registered to the department of primary school, mathematics and science teaching. The sample of the study involves 214 participants from the department of elementary school (n = 101), mathematics teaching (n = 66) and department of science (n = 47). The principal component factor analysis is applied to verify factor loadings of the mathematical and mathematical educational values. Two main factors, namely positivist and constructivist values, were detected according to results. The items of the scale are reduced to 34. Twenty of 34 items were loaded to constructivist and 14 of 34 items were loaded to positivist mathematics and mathematics educational values. Rest of the items, which were loaded correlated weakly (test item correlation coefficient is less than (0.30), were extracted from the scale. The mean scores of pre-service teachers indicates that the mean scores of constructivist values (M= 3.97; SD=0.43) is higher than the mean scores of positivist values (M=2.85; SD=0.52) in general. It is also found that there were no significant differences among mean scores of the departments. Some implications of the findings will be discussed. Appended are: (1) Mathematics and Mathematics Educational Values Scale. (Contains 3 tables.)
Publication Type: Collected Works - Proceedings; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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