EXAMINING MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT STUDENTS’ VIEWS ON THE USE OF MATHEMATICS IN DAILY LIFE

Some researchers report that especially the students of the faculty of science and letters do not have sufficient knowledge of the practicability of mathematics since they are mostly interested in the pure aspect of mathematics, and they have difficulty in using their pure mathematical knowledge properly. So, this study aims to examine the views of mathematics students registered in the pedagogical formation program about the use of mathematics in daily life. To this end, an interview form with open-ended questions was administered to 86 pre-service mathematics teachers. The findings showed that pre-service teachers viewed mathematics as an indispensable part of life, but they treated real-life math and school math as separate types of math and had difficulty in relating them to each other. We recommend the use of real or real-like situations in the classroom environment in order to train individuals who can associate mathematics with everyday life and use it more effectively

AN ANALYSIS OF THE REASONING SKILLS OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN THE CONTEXT OF MATHEMATICAL THINKING

The aim of this study is to address and analyse pre-service teachers’ mathematical reasoning skills in relation to mathematical thinking processes. For these purposes, pre-service teachers’ mathematical reasoning skills namely generalising/abstraction/modelling, ratiocination, development and creative thinking skills and the relationships among these skills are examined. Apart from these, it is explored whether grade level and gender have an effect on the application of these skills. The study is based on a mixed method research design and is carried out with 197 pre-service teachers of different grade levels in the school of education of a public university. One of the data collection tools used in the study is mathematical thinking and reasoning skills test which was developed by Başaran (2011) and comprises 21 open-ended questions on real-life problems. The second one is the Mathematical Reasoning Skills and Indicators developed by the researchers in the light of a study by Alkan and Taşdan (2011). Content analysis is performed on the data gathered from the pilot study conducted as the first step of the data analysis and the content of the quantitative data analysis is defined. As the second step, some parametric and non-parametric tests are utilized using the SPSS 15.0 software. As a result of the study, it has been revealed that pre-service teachers’ scores on generalising/abstraction/modelling and ratiocination skills are close to average whereas their scores on development and creative thinking skills are below average. It has also been concluded that all the relationships among pre-service teachers’ reasoning skills are significant and that correlations among the skills which are associated with stages that follow one another are stronger than the others. Another result of the study is that, in relation to the gender variable, there is a significant difference among the scores concerning generalising/abstraction/modelling and ratiocination skills, yet there are not any significant differences among the development and creative thinking skills scores. In relation to the grade variable, on the other hand, there aren’t any significant differences among the scores concerning generalising/abstraction/modelling (GAM) and reasoning (R) and improving (İ) skills, yet there are significant differences among the creative thinking skills scores of freshman and sophomore pre-service teachers and among those of the sophomore and junior pre-service teachers.Results of the present study are discussed in relation to the relevant literature and some recommendations for future studies pertaining to the subject and to learning environment quality are presented.  Article visualizations

PRE-SERVICE ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON GEOMETRIC CONSTRUCTIONS: BUILDING ON THE PAPER OR INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD?

This study examined pre-service teachers’ views and experiences of building geometric constructions on paper and with the interactive whiteboard. The study group consisted of 26 pre-service elementary teachers in a state university in the Black Sea region of Turkey who took the Geometry Teaching course. The data were obtained from an opinion form consisting of open-ended questions and field notes. Findings revealed that almost all of the teachers had no experience with geometric constructions in their previous education and the majority of pre-service teachers' opinions about geometric construction activities are positive. They experienced more problems when building geometric constructions on the interactive whiteboard so their opinions about building geometric constructions on paper are more positive than building on the interactive whiteboard. Moreover, it was determined that pre-service teachers’ views imply that building geometric constructions on the interactive whiteboard makes sense in the affective learning domain, whereas building on paper contributes more to the cognitive learning domain

Examination of the Number Sense Skills of Secondary School Students (6th-8th Grades)

The aim of this study is to examine the number sense skills of secondary school (6th-8th grades) students. The screening model among the descriptive research methods was used in the study. 366 secondary school students (6th-8th grades) in Ordu province participated in the study. The study data were collected by the number sense test developed by Kayhan- Altay (2010). The findings of the study showed that the number sense performances of the students were very low. It was determined that there was a significant difference in favour of the 8th-grade students in terms of the grade levels and in favour of the female students in terms of the gender in the number sense performances between 6th-8th-grade students and 7th-8th-grade students. On the other hand, it was determined that there was a significant positive relationship between the mathematical achievements and number sense performances of the students. Keywords: number sense, secondary school student