A survey of prospective mathematics teachers? beliefs and attitudes towards using the history of mathematics in mathematics teaching

We need to change mathematics education in order to make mathematics more meaningful and more understandable. This situation have been discussed by the academicians who are professional in this area. Depending on this, there is an increasing interest in using history of mathematics in mathematics teaching. If there is such an increasing interest in using History of Mathematics in Mathematics Teaching then what is the attitude of prospective mathematics teachers in using History of Mathematics? The study question is how prospective mathematics teachers change their attitudes towards using history of mathematics in mathematics teaching after the history of mathematics lessons which provide the use of history of mathematics.This study is carried on prospective mathematics teachers who are students of Faculty of Education in Karadeniz Technical University. The design of the study is the one-group pretest-posttest design. Both pretest and posttest history of mathematics attitudes scale have been used. By the end of the term which history of mathematics lesson is studied; a group of a student are chosen for the semi structured interview that is used to take the prospective teachers views about the using history of mathematics in mathematics teaching.At the end of the study the prospective teachers attitude towards using history of mathematics in mathematics teaching have been increased.