AN EXAMINATION OF PRE-SERVICE MIDDLE SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON REASONING
Abstract
Reasoning is one of the most fundamental skills required for learning and doing mathematics. It is therefore important to determine how mathematics teachers, who are responsible for the development of their students’ reasoning skills, approach reasoning. The aim of this study is to examine pre-service middle school mathematics teachers’ views on reasoning. This qualitative descriptive study involved 61 senior-year pre-service middle school mathematics teachers. Views on Reasoning Form, developed by the researchers was administered to the participants, and the data obtained were analyzed using content analysis. The participants most frequently viewed reasoning as a process and as problem solving. In the examples of reasoning related to daily life and mathematics, the participants generally did not explicitly demonstrate their reasoning processes. Deductive reasoning was used most frequently in the examples related to daily life and mathematics. In addition, arithmetic reasoning was least common in the daily-life examples, whereas algebraic and probabilistic reasoning were least common in the mathematics examples. Expressions synonymous with or related to reasoning varied widely, with references to logic and thinking being the most frequent. This study revealed that pre-service middle school mathematics teachers’ views on reasoning need to be further developed.
Keywords
Reasoning, Mathematical Reasoning, Types of Reasoning, Pre-Service Middle School Mathematics Teachers
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