Abstract:

This study aims to investigate the impact that teaching incorporating free problem-posing activities has on primary school preservice teachers’ attitudes toward mathematics. As such, this study employs an embedded mixed methods design that integrates a semi-experimental design. The participants of this research consisted of 33 freshman primary school preservice teachers attending at a university in the Marmara region of Turkey during the fall semester of the 2017-2018 school year. The participants were selected using convenience sampling. The study’s data were collected using two instruments: the mathematical problem-posing test and the mathematics attitudes scale. The quantitative data of the study were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics whereas qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The quantitative findings revealed there to be a statistically significant difference between the pretest and the posttest scores for the entire mathematics attitudes scale and for the interest-love sub factor. The qualitative findings, however, indicated that preservice teachers’ opinions could be grouped into two main categories: the affective dimension and the cognitive dimension.

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