Investigating Beliefs Regarding Mathematical Modelling in Pre-service Mathematics Teacher Education

The current chapter reports on pre-service mathematics teachers’ beliefs regarding mathematics modelling. Dimensions of quality teaching framework was applied in one 8-week mathematical modelling teaching unit at a university in South Africa. A classical pre-/post-test design was followed and, a paired t-test was applied on test scores to quantify the learning gains at the end of the unit. An instrument on teacher beliefs about modelling was also applied at the end of the intervention. Findings revealed significant learning gains in the mathematics content scores. There were also strong indicators of change in beliefs of the participants about mathematical modelling, from initially teacher-oriented to more constructivist and socio-constructivist beliefs.