engleski

Pre-service primary education teachers' beliefs and their approach to teaching mathematics – a longitudinal perspective

Every student's formal mathematics education begins with his primary education teacher, so it is very important that primary education teachers have good mathematics teaching skills, have positive attitudes toward mathematics and are motivated to teach it to their students. The research shows that mathematics teachers’ instructional decisions are significantly influenced by their beliefs (Cross, Rapacki & Eker, 2015). To encourage students' mathematical thinking, their teachers should hold beliefs that support the development of problem-centered, learner-oriented classroom environments (Cross, 2009). In Croatia primary education teachers are trained as generalists and mathematics is only one of several different subjects that they teach. That means that when they chose their future profession, they were not necessarily drawn by their interest in becoming mathematics teacher, so we were interested to explore factors that could influence the development of their approach to teaching mathematics. Therefore, we designed a comprehensive study to explore pre- service primary education teachers' beliefs from a longitudinal perspective: In their first year of studies, we collected data on their reasons for selecting teaching as a career and their experience with mathematics prior to entering university (the level of their mathematical competencies after high school, motivation for learning mathematics, mathematical epistemic beliefs, mathematics anxiety) In their third year of studies, we collected data on their experience with mathematics during their studies (mathematics achievement, motivation for learning mathematics, mathematical epistemic beliefs, mathematics anxiety) In their final year of studies, we collected data on their mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs, beliefs about the process of teaching mathematics (confidence in understanding students’ thinking, constructivist teaching, teacher-centered teaching), mathematical epistemic beliefs and mathematics anxiety. Our results show that pre-service primary education teachers' motivation for learning mathematics during their studies is significantly related to their motivation for learning mathematics in high school, level of the state graduation exam taken and epistemic beliefs (Rovan, Trupčević & Glasnović Gracin, 2014). Their mathematics anxiety and engagement in mathematics during their studies are related to their motivation for learning mathematics in high school and during their studies. Mathematics anxiety is negatively related to self-efficacy and subjective value of mathematics. Engagement in mathematics is related to subjective value of mathematics. Pre-service teachers high in math anxiety have maladaptive achievement goals profile, while those high in engagement have adaptive achievement goal profile. Therefore, the development of motivational beliefs (especially self-efficacy and subjective value beliefs) should also become one of the goals of their mathematics education. In the final year of their studies, pre-service primary education teachers hold adaptive beliefs on teaching mathematics – high mathematics teaching self-efficacy and student-centered approach to teaching (Rovan, Trupčević & Glasnović Gracin, 2018). Their mathematics teaching self-efficacy is related to their reasons for choosing teaching as a career, but even more to their previous experiences with mathematics. Their beliefs about the process of teaching mathematics are primarily related to mathematics teaching self-efficacy and also to the reasons for choosing teaching as a career. Research results are in line with the assumption that both the previous experiences of learning mathematics and the reasons for selecting teaching career are important in the process of forming beliefs about teaching mathematics, but more complex research is needed to reveal possible interplay of those factors in developing pre-service teachers' approach to teaching mathematics.

beliefs, preservice teachers, longitudinal approach

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