Difficulties experiencing primary school mathematics teacher candidates in the process of mathematical modeling in the context of flipped learning: An example of functions

The purpose of this study is to examine the challenges pre-service mathematics teachers face during a mathematical modeling education process conducted through a flipped learning model. The research was carried out using the phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods. The study was conducted with 51 pre-service mathematics teachers enrolled at a public university during the 2022-2023 spring semester. Of the participants, 36 were female and 15 were male. The study focused on the problem-solving processes of the pre-service teachers related to four different modeling problems associated with the topic of functions, as well as the challenges they encountered during these processes. Data collection involved the assignments uploaded by the pre-service teachers to the ALMS system, the modeling problems they solved using Geogebra, conversations on the WhatsApp platform, and Zoom recordings. Additionally, interview forms reflecting the pre-service teachers' thoughts on the process were used as a data collection tool. The data analysis was conducted using descriptive analysis in line with mathematical modeling competencies, focusing on the problem-solving processes of pre-service mathematics teachers in mathematical modeling problems. The other data comprises analyses focused on the challenges encountered by the pre-service teachers, explicitly examining the underlying reasons behind the findings. The study's findings revealed that pre-service teachers experienced difficulties throughout the mathematical modeling process. These challenges emerged due to the inherent nature of mathematical modeling problems, the pre-service teachers' content knowledge, and difficulties related to technology use. These results indicate that pre-service teachers require significant support in overcoming the challenges they face in mathematical modeling education. It is suggested that more research should be conducted, and innovative learning environments should be designed to address the difficulties pre-service teachers encounter.