Primary School Teacher Candidates' Geometric Habits of Mind

Abstract

Geometric habits of mind are productive ways of thinking that support learning and using geometric concepts. Identifying primary school teacher candidates' geometric habits of mind is important as they affect the development of their future students' geometric thinking. Therefore, this study attempts to determine primary school teachers' geometric habits of mind. Participants were 57 primary school teacher candidates in their third year studying Primary School Education in a Faculty of Education at a state university in Turkey. The data were collected through four open-ended geometry problems on concepts of perimeter and area. The collected data were then analyzed based on the theoretical framework of the components of geometric habits of mind and in accordance with the stages of descriptive analysis. The results showed that the primary school teacher candidates did not possess different ways of thinking about the components indicating geometric habits of mind. The study also found that the candidates could not analyze the given problems appropriately and acted on the first idea they came up with, but they were unable to apply these actions on the problem and, therefore, their geometric habits of mind were not at the desired level.