Analysis of the Change in the Awareness of Primary School Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers on Famous Mathematicians

This study is a qualitative study that seeks to analyse the awareness of primary school pre-service mathematics teachers on famous mathematicians and to examine the change in their awareness. It is designed as exploratory case study. The study group consists of 30 primary school pre-service mathematics teachers, who are senior-level students in the department of primary school mathematics teaching in the 2017-2018 academic year. The data were gathered through the open-ended forms with questions on a total of 27 famous mathematicians, who lived from the Ancient Greek Period to the Modern Period. The data analysis was performed using content analysis. The information of the pre-service teachers on famous mathematicians were analysed under two categories: scientific contributions and personal characteristics. The analysis of the data obtained from the pre-service teachers showed that the famous mathematicians most known by them before the course of History of Mathematics were Euclid, Pythagoras, Pascal, Thales, Newton, Bernoulli and Gauss whilst the pre-service teachers were most knowledgeable about Euclid, Pythagoras, Pascal, Newton, Bernoulli, Fermat, Fourier, Al-Khwarizmi, Thales, Gauss, Euler, Omar Khayyam and Leibniz after the course of HoM (History of Mathematics). This study also revealed that the pre-service teachers had less information on the personal characteristics of mathematicians whereas they had more information on their scientific contributions. Moreover, some pre-service teachers had inaccurate information on famous mathematicians. In conclusion, it is notable that the awareness of the pre-service teachers on famous mathematicians increased after the course of HoM, but the increase was not at the desired level. [This study was presented as an oral presentation at the International Limitless Education and Research Symposium (USEAS) (2nd).]