engleski

Teachers’ beliefs on mathematics as a background for their teaching practice

This paper discusses the impact that teachers’ beliefs on mathematics and mathematics education have on their teaching practice. The issues concerning teaching practice focus in particular on the utilization of mathematics textbooks in the classroom. It is argued that teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics are significant in the utilization of a particular resource. We conducted a case study involving lower secondary mathematics teachers (grades five to eight) where we examined teachers’ classroom practice and beliefs about mathematics, mathematics education, teaching mathematics and using textbooks as curriculum resources. The aim was to find out whether the teachers’ attitudes correspond to their practice in the observed lessons or whether there are inconsistencies. The findings suggest that teachers’ decisions regarding the use of textbooks in mathematics are influenced by their perception of the educational value of the textbooks and their personal beliefs about mathematics and mathematics education.

mathematics teacher, beliefs, textbook, teacher- curriculum relationship

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