Examining preschool teachers' use of mathematics education materials and their pedagogical mathematics content knowledge

In this research, personal information about working in a pre-school education institution and information about the usage of the information preferred in mathematics activities and the relationship between these usage situations and pre school pedagogical mathematics field knowledge. In this research, a mixed simultaneous model in which qualitative and quantitative methods were used together was used. Pedagogical mathematics field data of preschool follow-up was obtained with the relational scanning model, one of the general scanning models of quantitative research methods. A semi-structured questionnaire, one of the qualitative research methods, was used to determine the materials preferred by preschool teachers when implementing mathematics activities. The sample group of the research consists of 91 preschool teachers working in private and independent kindergartens and kindergartens within primary schools within the Ministry of National Education in Çerkezköy district of Tekirdağ province. Data collection tools used in the research; "Personal Information Form", "Preschool Teacher Mathematics Materials Questionnaire Form", "Preschool Teacher Interview Form" and "Pedagogical Content Knowledge Scale Form in Preschool Mathematics". The data obtained in the research were evaluated in the SPSS 22.0 package program, and percentage, frequency, arithmetic mean, Mann Whitney U, Anova and T-Test were used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the study, when the materials preferred by preschool teachers in mathematics activities were examined; The most frequently used material for counting, pattern, graph and geometry concepts is worksheets, the most frequently used material for measurement concept is ropes, the most frequently used material for matching concept is blocks, and the most frequently used natural material is water. When the ratio of whether the materials used by preschool teachers while teaching mathematics is ready-made or self-made is examined according to the demographic characteristics of preschool teachers, 50% of the mathematics materials used by all preschool teachers, regardless of gender, age range, years of seniority, type of program they graduated from, educational background and type of school they work in, are examined. It has been determined that 50% of the ready-made products are self-made. In addition, it was concluded that the gender, age, type of school they work at and whether they received mathematics education did not show a significant difference in the preschool teachers' mathematics pedagogical content knowledge scores, but their years of seniority, the type of program they graduated from and their educational background showed a significant difference in their pedagogical content knowledge scores. Keywords: Mathematics Education, Mathematics Educational Materials, Pedagogical Content Knowledge