PRE-SERVICE ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS ON THE NATURE OF MATHEMATICS: A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING ANALYSIS

This study aims to investigate pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ philosophical thoughts on the nature of mathematics with sub-dimensions and whether there is a difference in terms of gender and grade or not. Relational survey model, one of the quantitative research models was adopted in the study. The study was conducted with 411 pre-service elementary mathematics teachers studying at the different grades of an education faculty in the second semester of the academic year, 2012-2013, and used the Scale of Philosophical Thoughts About the Nature of Mathematics. The data were analyzed with packet programs LISREL 8.71 and SPSS 17.0. Findings showed that the highest predictor dimension of the philosophical thoughts on the nature of mathematics is the structure of mathematics, and the others are respectively problem solving, mathematical thinking and daily life. A major part of pre-service teachers have quasi-experimentalist viewpoints in mathematics. In addition, there is not a statistical difference in the scores of philosophical thoughts on the nature of mathematics according to gender variable and there is a significant statistical difference among the scores of the scale according to the grade variable. There is a significant difference between first and fourth grade pre-service teachers’ scores in favor of fourth grades.