A research of developing the pre-service secondary mathematics teachers? mathematical modelling performance

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the prospective secondary mathematics teachers? mathematical modelling knowledge, skills and opinions. In the secondary school mathematics curriculum Published by Ministry of National Education gives emphasis on Mathematical modelling. Mathematical modelling is very important issue for secondary mathematics tecaher and mathematics educators.The reserach design of the study is a ?case study?. The study was conducted with 21 third-year prospective teachers taking the elective course offered in a public university in Turkey during one semester. At the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester the participants pre and post questionnaires were administered to learn about their experiences and opinions about mathematical modelling. Also, pre and post mathematical modelling performance tests were also given to subjects. Also, five of the participants were interviewed.Both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were utilized to answer the research questions. The interviews were analyzed by the phenomenographical method. Analityc method was used. to identify pre-service secondary mathematics teachers? mathematical modelling performance. The results of the study revealed that the participants were more successfull in the post- mathematical modelling test than pre-test. There was a development in terms of opinions about mathematical modelling and knowledge by taking into account the questionnaires and interview results.The results of the study have considerable implications for teacher educators and mathematicians.