Investigation of the relationship pre-service elementary teachers' mathematical curious and sense of achievement towards the mathematics course

In the study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between pre-service primary school teachers' mathematical curiosity and their sense of achievement towards the mathematics course, and to compare of their mathematical curiosity and sense of achievement towards the mathematics course according to the grade level and gender. In line with the purpose of the research, relational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The sample of the research consists of 408 (290 woman, 118 man) pre-service elementary teachers studying in the 3rd and 4th grades in the 2022-2023 academic year at five universities in the Western and Eastern Black Sea Regions. The 'Mathematical Curiosity Scale' (Toptaş, 2021) consisting of 22 items in a 5-grade Likert type in order to determine the mathematical curiosity levels of the primary school teacher candidates, was developed by Pekrun, Goetz, and Frenzel (2007) to determine their sense of achievement for the mathematics lesson, by Elmalı Özsaray (2016). The 'Success Emotions Scale' consisting of 19 items in a 5-point Likert type adapted to Turkish was used. The analyzes showed that the mathematical curiosity levels of the participants did not change according to the grade level variable, but there was a significant difference in favor of male teacher candidates according to the gender variable. In addition, it was concluded that while the grade level variable did not have an effect on the feelings of achievement towards the mathematics lesson, the gender variable had a great effect on the feelings of achievement towards the mathematics lesson. It was found that there is a positive, significant and moderate relationship between the mathematical curiosity of the pre-service elementary teachers' and their sense of achievement towards the mathematics course.