Preservice teachers' belief systems and attitudes toward mathematics in the context of a progressive elementary teacher preparation program.

Abstract

By the time the preservice teachers had completed the elementary education coursework, they had significantly higher self-efficacy with respect to their ability to effectively teach mathematics. These students also reflected a strong adoption of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards (1989, 1991) recommended constructivist orientation toward teaching mathematics. Finally, these students showed a sophisticated epistemological view on the nature of mathematics as a dynamic, ever changing, problem driven branch of science.

Most teacher education programs have, in one form or another, goals that are related to student beliefs regarding teaching and learning. The effectiveness of the teacher education curriculum in reaching these goals will be mediated by the student's initial belief systems and the beliefs they develop throughout their programs of study. For this reason, it is important to gain a greater understanding of the beliefs of prospective teachers at various points in their development as teachers. The current study focused on one teacher education program and one subject area, mathematics, within the elementary education curriculum in that program. The study was designed to answer three research questions: What are the attitudes and personal, pedagogical, and epistemological beliefs about mathematics held by preservice elementary and early childhood teachers before, during, and after completion of teacher preparation coursework; what are the relationships among theses beliefs and attitudes; and, do these beliefs and attitudes differ as a function of the prospective teachers, educational experience.

Participants completed an 83-item Likert scale questionnaire in either a freshman level mathematics class, an educational psychology class, or a mathematics methods class. Multivariate Analysis of Variance statistical tests were used to examine all five groups over the nine subscales of the questionnaire. Regardless of the semester, instructor, or course, the trend was clear. Students who had participated in the elementary teacher education program held significantly different beliefs than those who had not.

Participants (N = 226) in the sample were undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the elementary education program at a large Southwestern university. Fifteen sections of six different classes were surveyed over a three semester period from the fall of 1998 to the summer of 1999. Participants were organized into five groups based on teacher education experience.