Abstract:

The aim of this study is to determine pre-service social science teachers’ attitudes towards mathematics from the viewpoints of perceived mathematics achievement, phobia and anxiety. The study adopting case study methodology was carried out with 30 senior students who were educated in the social sciences teaching department in the spring semester of the academic year 2011-2012. While 13 of the participants enrolled in the elective mathematics course, the rest 17 students did not take this course in their last year. The data were collected with a 5 question-interview form and analyzed with content analysis way. The findings showed that students who did not take mathematics course felt less successful in mathematics then the students who took the course. The students expressed this situation by relating it with their mathematics teachers, lacking the fundamentals of mathematics, not studying mathematics and not feeling interested in mathematics. % 31 of the students taking mathematics course and % 47 of the students not taking the course felt mathematics phobia and the main reason of it was students’ failure in the course. In addition, % 54 of the students taking mathematics course and % 82 of the students not taking the course had mathematics anxiety. The main reasons of this anxiety stated by the participants were feeling exam anxiety, not learning, lacking knowledge, forgetting, not using mathematics too much, feeling constant failure and operation fear. Lastly, majority of the participants desired to be successful in mathematics, found mathematics course beneficial and thought that social sciences teaching department curricula ought to include mathematics course

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