Epistemological Conceptions of Pre-service Elementary Mathematics Teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ epistemological conceptions of mathematics and the effect of university and university grade level on these conceptions. Data was collected during the fall semester of 2005-2006 academic year from randomly selected 275 freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior pre-service middle school mathematics teachers
enrolled in elementary mathematics teacher education programs at two large public universities in Ankara. In order to collect data Pre-service Teachers’ Conceptions of Mathematics Inventory, consisting of 56 items was used. The Two-way MANOVA results revealed that pre-service teachers’ level of epistemological conceptions were generally high. Additionally, results showed that university attended and university grade level have significant effect on pre-service teachers’ conceptions of mathematics