Investigation of the manipulative development process of the pre-service secondary mathematics teachers

The purpose of this research is to explore the manipulative development process of the pre-service secondary mathematics teachers.In this study, qualitative research methodology was used. The data of the study were analyzed by grounded theory techniques. The participants of the study were forty pre-service teachers. Knowledge of the pre-service mathematics teachers about ?teaching materials and material development? was determined through the written documents and interviews. In order to examine the development process, a qualitative research approaches including the written documents, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were used. According to the method of grounded theory, constant comparative analysises were applied and emerging new questions were organized. Finally, interviews which is guided by new questions were carried out with the selected pre-service teachers.It was demonstrated that pre-service teachers choose a mathematical learning field to develope manipulatives. In addition to this, selection criteria for learning fields have been revealed. The criteria are associated with accumulation of knowledge of pre-service teachers, the demanded materials and interest in the learning field of them. The objective of the pre-service teachers were to develope three dimensional thinking, to configure advance mathematical concepts and to correct/complete the wrong/missing learnings. In developing manipulative, pre-service teachers lived an intense process of thinking. It is obtained that this process has stages including ?research?, ?idea generation? and ?application/evaluation? similar to those of the known creative thinking stages. What pre-service teachers? attention were and how they modelled mathematical concepts were determined. As a result of the study, it was tried to uncover all cases related to what pre-service teachers? selection criteria for learning fields, how to their goals were identified, what their stages of thinking process were and how they modelled mathemetical concepts.