The effect of an historical perspective on prospective teachers’ beliefs in learning mathematics

Abstract

Many learners hold traditional beliefs about mathematics that can hamper their learning in the discipline. To address this issue, a ''history-based'' intervention program entailing problem-solving and writing activities that instigate cognitive conflict was implemented. Data sources were pretest and posttest scores of a 12-theme questionnaire designed for this study called ''Prospective teachers' beliefs questionnaire about mathematics learning'' and written reflections of prospective teachers. The survey of the prospective teachers beliefs related to the nature of mathematics and the way it is learned, taught, and practiced showed a great majority of them failed to hold progressive beliefs. Fortunately, the intervention program has helped the prospective teachers revise and correct their beliefs, thoughts, and understandings. Study of the prospective teachers' written reflections and observations of their oral presentations during whole-class discussions strengthen the results of the quantitative study.

Incorporating history of mathematics in open-ended problem solving: An empirical study

“…That way we can compare some of our participants' reactions to the reactions of other participants in other projects and experiments. Similar research in groups of participants, 7 / 17 in that case prospective math teachers, not undergraduate students, has been done and shown that facing difficulties and different situations in problems with historical background can change their path of thought and their pedagogical style (Clark, 2012;Furinghetti, 2007;Weldeana & Abraham, 2014). Another approach, closer to ours, is where the researchers suggested to the classroom that they cooperate in solving an open-ended problem, to improve their teamwork skills and come closer to a result (Suastika, 2017).…”

Modifikasi Model Pembelajaran Problem Based Learning (PBL) dengan Strategi Pembelajaran Tugas dan Paksa

“…Meskipun bukanlah pendekatan yang sama sekali baru, penerapan model PBL mengalami kemajuan yang pesat di banyak perguruan tinggi dan berbagai disiplin ilmu di negara-negara maju (Tan, 2013). Nigus, Solomon, & Abraham, (2014) mengatakan bahwa As learners are exposed to problems from the history of mathematics that triggers cognitive conflict, they have to deploy problem-solving strategies to resolve the conflict and gain some learning.…”

“…Dan menurut Glazer ( 2001) "Dengan pembelajaran bermakna diharapkan memberikan kemudahan kepada siswa dalam melakukan proses pembelajaran yang utuh". Menurut Nigus et al (2014) If knowing mathematics is a means to able to do the mathematics, the history-based intervention program helped the prospective mathematics teachers' favor knowing math-ematics by diminishing the role of holding a step-by-step procedure and rote memorization in solving mathematics problems. Knowing the mathematics has a correspondence with enabling students to construct their own knowledge by means of ''doing'' mathematics, solving problems, and organizing the subject matter.…”