Opinions of pre-service pre-school teachers on the use of mathematics activities

Abstract

The research reported on here was designed in a qualitative approach to present the opinions of pre-service pre-school teachers on the use of mathematics activities. The sample consisted of 10 pre-service teachers, who in their fourth year of pre-school education in the teaching department in 2017 to 2018. The pre-service teachers in the study group were selected from those with a grade point average (GPA) of above 3 and who completed the teaching practice course. In the research, the data were collected from the pre-service teachers through interviews. A semi-structured form, developed by the researcher, was used as a data collection tool in order to reveal the opinions of pre-service pre-school teachers on the application of mathematics activities. The results of the research show that the participating pre-service pre-school teachers used more than one-to-one correspondence in mathematics activities of which the most difficult concepts were classification and geometrical  figures – difficult situations in which to attract the attention of children and a crowded class of 36 to 48 month old children. Most of the mathematics activities were integrated into games and art through the narration and gamification method. The participants mostly used prepared mathematics activities in practice.

Keywords: mathematics; pre-school; pre-service teacher