Investigation of prospective mathematics teachers' problem solving processes in the context of computational thinking

Objective: To determine the views of primary school mathematics teacher candidates on the problem solving process carried out through computational thinking activities. Material and Methods: Case study, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data in the research. The participants of the study are 13 (10 female, 3 male) pre-service teachers studying in the primary school mathematics teaching department of a state university. All participants were educated at the same grade level (3rd grade) of undergraduate education, primary school mathematics teaching undergraduate curriculum mathematics field courses (General Mathematics, Abstract Mathematics, Geometry, Analysis I, II, III, Linear Algebra I, II etc.) These are the teacher candidates who have successfully completed the compulsory/elective courses (Teaching Principles and Methods, Development of Geometric/Algebraic Thinking, Special Teaching Methods I, Problem Solving, etc.) and participated in the research voluntarily. The data of the research consists of the focus group interviews conducted separately with the participants before and after the activities, and the field notes taken by the researcher. The first focus group discussions were held at the beginning of the process (before the activities) in two groups of 7 and 6 participants; The second focus group interviews were held with the same groups in semi-structured interview format after six weeks of computational thinking focused problem solving activities. The data of the research was created by transferring the records to the written media by the researcher. Content analysis was used in the analysis of the data. Results: Four main themes, namely 21st century skills, problem solving, computational thinking and technology, were created with the coding of the statements of the pre-service teachers, which were reflected in the focus group interviews at the beginning and end of the process, and with the support of the literature. According to the opinions of the pre-service teachers reflected in the first focus group interview held at the beginning of the process; pre-service teachers generally have a good grasp of the concept of 21st century skills; It has been observed that skills can be grouped under three main headings as (1) learning and innovation skills, (2) information, media and technology skills, and (3) life and career skills, in accordance with a framework in the literature (P21, 2014). They have almost no knowledge about computational thinking skill/concept; it was revealed that they made interpretations based on the word meaning only with an approach based on phonetics and they thought that it was a concept like "processing information into the brain". In the focus group interviews held at the end of the process (after the activities), the change that can be expressed as the most radical change, which was reflected in the views of the pre-service teachers, was experienced regarding computational thinking. In the second focus group interviews, pre-service teachers stated that computational thinking is actually a process like problem solving; They stated that there are stages such as problem solving and that technology (computers) is used at every stage of the process. Conclusion: Based on their own educational processes, pre-service teachers stated that from past to present, teaching environments have changed and diversified with a focus on technology. They stated that at the end of the process about this concept, which they had almost no idea at the beginning of the process, the concept of computational thinking is actually a process like problem solving, and it has stages just like problem solving, and they can benefit from computers at every stage of the process.