Preservice teachers´ attitudes towards mathematics

• Researchers emphasise the importance for early childhood teacher education (ECTE) to promote positive attitudes towardsmathematics (Hollingsworth & Knight McKennas, 2018). The aim of this study is to investigate preservice teachers' attitudes totowards mathematics, whether and how attitudes change during ECTE and what might cause the changes. Previous research showsthat many preservice and early childhood teachers have low self-confidence and negative attitudes towards mathematics (Gresham& Burleigh, 2019; Hollingsworth & Knight McKenna, 2018; Linder & Simpson, 2018; Palmer, 2010). These negative attitudesinfluence their teaching of mathematics, which in turn affects children’s possibilities to learn (Geist, 2015; Knaus, 2017; Linder &Simpson; 2018; Youmans et al., 2018). We use the concept of attitude and adopt a multidimensional definition, where cognitive aswell as affective and behavioral components are included (Wen & Dube, 2022). We will use a short form of Tapia and Marsh's (2004)Attitudes Towards Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) questionnaire, developed and tested by Lim and Chapman (2013), together withcomplementing open questions. Ethical considerations are made according to the guidelines of the Swedish Research Council (2017).Based on the results, we will describe preservice teachers' attitudes towards mathematics during different parts of their education,as well as what influences these and how ECTE can contribute to promoting positive attitudes. The study can provide knowledgeabout how ECTE can support the development of positive attitudes towards mathematics, with the ultimate aim to enable earlychildhood education teachers to teach mathematics using children’s curiosity and interest.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

early childhood teacher education

mathematics

attitudes

preservice teacher

questionnaire

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)