Abstract:

Teaching mathematics, which mathematicians have long laid great emphasis on, is still considered to be a source of difficulty. As prerequisite knowledge is intense in teaching mathematics, teaching mathematical relations should be taken into consideration in early education periods rather than in secondary school education. The knowledge of mathematical relations starts in early period with the relationship between geometric figures or numbers within the context of patterns and continues with the relationship between variables. The present study was carried out with pre-school teacher candidates in the Spring Term of the academic year of 2013-2014 to examine the extent of pre-school teacher candidates’ readiness for teaching the mathematical relations (A case from Dicle University). The collection of data and evaluation measures developed by (Umay, 2003) the six-question questionnaire was used. The results of the study revealed that according to the pre-school teacher candidates, mathematics is in every field of life and that they did not view mathematics as an ordinary course. While this was considered to be a positive situation, the fact that some of the teacher candidates considered certain daily words to be mathematical elements was found to be a negative situation. It is believed that this negative situation can be overcome via supplementary education to be given for introducing mathematics.

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