Attitudes, experiences and learning related to mathematics of the adult-future-teacher in the degree in Pedagogy

Abstract

We describe the results of a master's thesis in which we seek to reflect on the formation of attitudes towards Mathematics in a degree course in Pedagogy. For the present text, we aim to present the experiences constituted for the acquisition of aspects of the mathematical contents and the formation of positive attitudes. The research fits into qualitative-quantitative studies, of a descriptive-analytical nature, given that such an approach allows the researcher direct contact with the field of data production and the statistical treatment of computable/calculable information. The pertinent information was collected from the participant observation with 23 (twenty-three) students of the 4th semester of Pedagogy of a public university. In this context, we invited the group of students to answer an "Attitudes Scale" (AIKEN; DREGER, 1963) in relation to Mathematics, developed, translated, tested, adapted and validated by Brito (1996) and an online questionnaire, in perspective of identifying how the discipline "Fundamentals and Methodologies of Mathematics Teaching" influenced and/or reinforced the "Attitudes" in Mathematics. The results indicate that the practices developed in the classroom and the methodological approach were able to alleviate the difficulties that were initially exposed by future teachers, which is of great importance given the challenge of the teacher trainer in a 68-hour discipline. With the end of the investigation, we can infer that there was a contribution of the initial training to the strengthening of a belief of positive self-efficacy of the students.