New Perspectives in Science Education

Mathematical Problem Solving (MPS) is one of the fundamental competencies to be developed by preservice primary education teachers [1]. This objective requires work that integrates the nature of these activities, possible strategies or stages to solve them and, also, the reflection on the attitudes and emotions that arise during their resolution. Some researchers have shown that the emotions perceived towards MPS can condition the methodologies used by graduates in primary teaching and, therefore, learning of their future students [2]. Therefore, as teacher trainers, we must understand the affective dimension involved in MPS by preservice teachers. To this end, this work presents a descriptive quantitative analysis based on a validated questionnaire [3], which was administered in the third year of the Degree in Primary Education of a Spanish public university. The instrument consists of 21 items that must be assessed on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree); these statements are encompassed in four domains: nature of mathematical problems, perceived self-efficacy in MPS, attitudes and emotional reactions towards MPS and evaluation of previous training received in the Degree in Primary Education. A statistical analysis was performed, combined with hypothesis testing, to know the influence of variables such as gender or previous background of the participants. Our results show positive attitudes towards MPS (e.g., perseverance or patience), ambivalent emotions (e.g., satisfaction and curiosity, but also fear and nervousness), medium self-efficacy and a mechanical and algorithmic vision of MPS. These results should support the proposals implemented around MPS in the initial training of teachers, seeking to promote a more dynamic and flexible view of mathematical problems, together with the feeling of positive learning emotions.

Keywords: mathematical problem solving, emotions, attitudes, preservice teacher training, primary education.

References:

1. Chapman, O. (2015). Mathematics teachers’ knowledge for teaching problem solving. Lumat, 3(1), 19–36.
2. Mellado, V., Borrachero, A.B., Brígido, M., Melo, L.V., Dávila, M.A., Cañada, F., … Bermejo, M.L. (2014). Las emociones en la enseñanza de las ciencias. Enseñanza de las Ciencias, 32(3), 11–36.
3. Caballero, A., & Guerrero, E. (2015). Un cuestionario sobre dominio afectivo y resolución de problemas de matemáticas. En Blanco-Nieto, L.J., Cárdenas, J.A., & Caballero, A. (Eds.), La resolución de problemas de Matemáticas en la formación inicial de profesores de Primaria (pp. 39–57). Cáceres (España): Universidad de Extremadura.