Examining Pre-service Elementary Teachers’ Changing Beliefs within the Context of Mathematics Education Course

Abstract

This study was done to determine the changes in belief of pre-service elementary teachers towards mathematics in mathematics education course and to address the effect of this change on gender and academic success variables. The study was designed according to the panel study model of longitudinal research method. 92 pre-services who are educating in primary school teaching department of a state university in 2013-2014 academic years formed the sample of research. As data collection tool “Mathematics Belief Scale” that was developed by Steiner (2007) and its reliability, validity and language equivalency in Turkish form that was done by Masal and Takunyacı (2012), was used. In analyzing of data paired samples t-test and for repeated measures two way ANOVA techniques were used. At the end of research, positive change was observed in beliefs of pre-service teachers towards mathematics within the process; also it was found that gender and academic success variables have no effect on beliefs of pre-services towards mathematics. Keywords: Pre-service elementary school, belief , mathematics belief scale, mathematics education