A Study on inservice teachers' attitudes toward and beliefs about mathematical problem solving

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2012
Çokçalışkan, Hasan
The main purpose of this study was to investigate elementary teachers’ and elementary mathematics teachers’ attitudes toward and beliefs about mathematical problem solving in terms of gender and grade level being taught. Moreover, the relationship between elementary teachers’ and elementary mathematics teachers’ attitudes and beliefs was evaluated in this study. The data were collected from 141 in-service elementary teachers who are teaching 4th and 5th graders and elementary mathematics teachers who are teaching 6th, 7th and 8th graders in Nevşehir. The measuring instruments used to collect data were Whitaker Mathematical Problem Solving Attitude Scale (WMPSAS) and, Belief on Mathematical Problem Solving Scale (BMPSS). The results showed that, in general, in-service elementary teachers and elementary mathematics teachers indicated positive attitudes and rich beliefs toward mathematical problem solving. In addition, there was a significant difference between grade level being taught regarding attitudes and beliefs. The elementary mathematics teachers had significantly higher attitudes and beliefs scores than the elementary teachers. The results also revealed that there was not significant main effect for gender on both attitudes and beliefs. In other words, regardless of grade level being taught, female elementary teachers and female elementary mathematics teachers had higher attitude and belief scores than male elementary teachers and male elementary mathematics teachers. Finally, Pearson product-moment correlation analysis indicated a significantly positive correlation between attitude and belief scores.

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Citation Formats
H. Çokçalışkan, “A Study on inservice teachers’ attitudes toward and beliefs about mathematical problem solving,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2012.