Investigating the 21st century skills, self-efficacy perceptions and mathematics teaching anxiety of pre-service primary mathematics teachers in terms of some variables

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between 21st century skills self-efficacy perceptions and mathematics teaching anxiety levels of prospective elementary mathematics teachers, with the variables of gender, grade level, type of secondary education institution graduated from and place/region of residence. Therefore, 21st century skills self-efficacy perceptions of prospective elementary mathematics teachers were determined and their anxiety levels in mathematics teaching were determined. In order to ensure the representativeness of the study group, care was taken to select the pre-service teachers included in the research from universities located in different places. A total of 366 pre-service teachers (195 male and 171 female) from five universities (Akdeniz University, Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Necmettin Erbakan University) participated in the study. The research employed the survey method. The survey model is a research method designed to describe a situation that existed in the past or still exists (Karasar, 2018). In the study, the following instruments were employed as data collection tools: the 21st Century Skills Self-Efficacy Perception Scale (Anagün, Atalay, Kılıç, & Yaşar, 2016), the Mathematics Teaching Anxiety Scale developed by Peker (2006), and the personal information form. The research findings revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in terms of gender and type of high school graduated, while there was a statistically significant difference in terms of class level and region of residence variables of pre-service teachers' 21st century self-efficacy perceptions. While there was no statistically significant difference between pre-service teachers' mathematics teaching anxiety levels in terms of grade level and high school variables, it was concluded that there was a statistically significant difference in terms of gender and region of residence variables. Finally, it was demonstrated that there was no statistically significant relationship between pre-service teachers' 21st century self-efficacy perceptions and mathematics teaching anxiety levels. As a consequence of the research, recommendations were made for further studies to be conducted by new researchers.