Effectiveness of preservice training program for mathematic teacher candidates

Abstract

It is very important to identify and train gifted individuals who lead the development of societies. It is observed that teachers have a great importance in the identification education of gifted students. At this point, teacher candidates field knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy towards gifted students gain importance. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of the Mathematics Teaching for Gifted Students course given in the faculties of education and the education provided by the Science and Art Center on the self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes of mathematics teacher candidate towards teaching the gifted mathematics course. The research model is a descriptive survey model. The research was designed as a single-group pretest-posttest experimental design. The data collection tools of the research are the Attitude Scale for the Education of the Gifted, adapted by Tortop (2014) and the, mathematics lesson adaptation was used by making use of the scale developed by Girgin(2021) to determine the self-efficacy of mathematics teacher candidates regarding the education of gifted students. 86 teacher candidates who were studying in the department of primary education mathematics teaching at a state university in the Marmara Region and took the course of teaching mathematics to gifted students were included in the study with appropriate case sampling. The data obtained from the attitude and self-efficacy scales about the education of gifted students, which were applied to the mathematics teacher candidates at the beginning and end of the term, were analyzed with the SPSS 27 program using descriptive analysis, t-test, variance and correlation analysis. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the training provided caused a statistically significant difference in the self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes of the mathematics teacher candidates regarding the teaching of the gifted mathematics lesson. As a result of the research, no difference is observed in the self-efficacy and attitudes of teacher candidates related to the education of gifted students in terms of gender factor.

Keywords

• Attitude towards gifted
• Selfefficacy of gifted students’ teachers
• Teacher education
• Preservice training

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