Prospective Teachers' Views About The Nature Of Mathematics

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop and implement a valid and reliable scale to determine the different views of prospective teachers towards the nature of mathematics. Since the nature of mathematics and the views of individuals towards mathematics are variables of different factors that could not be directly observed, theoretic sources that are generally accepted and experts’ views are taken into consideration while generating draft item list in the process of developing the scale. For this purpose, a draft of Likert scale of 1- 5 consisting of 30 items was applied on a pilot group. According to the results of the item analysis and expert opinions, five items were taken out of the scale and statements were rewritten. The final scale which is called MADIFDO was administered on 520 students of a faculty of education in a medium-scaled province in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, majoring in Science Education, Mathematics Education, Elementary Education, and Social Sciences Education in the academic year 2009-2010. The analysis showed that the items making up the scale clustered under 4 factors, and the total rate of variance explained by these factors is 42.797 %. Besides, The Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency coefficient of the scale was found to be 0.854. MADİFDÖ is concluded to be a valid and reliable scale that can capture the perspectives of teachers on the nature of mathematics. The results showed that about the half of the participants (49%) view mathematics as a semi-experimentalist human endeavor.