Examination of the metaphorical perceptions of mathematics teacher candidates towards mathematical proving

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine mathematics teacher candidates' perceptions about mathematical proving through metaphors. The participants of the research were 203 mathematics teacher candidates who were having education at the Faculty of Education of the two state universities in the Central Anatolia region, and they were selected on the basis of volunteerism. As a means of data collection, the mathematics teacher candidates were given papers which were written "proving is like...... because......." on. While the metaphors developed by mathematics teacher candidates were being analyzed, the appropriate and inappropriate metaphors were determined. Then, the sources of metaphors developed by mathematics teacher candidates for proving were read in detail, and these metaphors were classified according to their similarities, and categorized. At the end of the content analysis, the metaphors developed by the participants were collected under a total of 12 conceptual categories. When these categories were examined, it was found that 35% of the participants perceived proving as a difficult, complex, boring and unnecessary process, and their perceptions about proving were negative, while the remaining participants (65%) had positive perceptions towards proving, and generally the metaphors obtained were towards explaining the nature of proving.