Abstract:

After graduation, each student of Teaching Mathematics should feel to be sufficiently prepared for his/her future occupation. He/she should be (at least theoretically) qualified as regards key competencies in pedagogy and the didactics of mathematics – he/she should be competent in terms of the basic rules of successful communication between the pupil and the teacher in mathematics, he/she should be able to set reasonable educational goals and assign such activities and use such suitable didactical tools as to achieve the goals. He/she should use effective evaluation instruments as feedback to improve the quality of mathematics lessons. And, last but not least, he/she should have at least the minimum required level of digital literacy.

The basis of our research to establish the levels of all these competencies was the international study Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M), focused on the determination of the preparedness of prospective mathematics teachers in terms of field-specific knowledge as well as pedagogy. One of the sub-tests was the test entitled Beliefs about preparedness for teaching mathematics, which directly examined all the aforementioned aspects.

The paper summarizes the basic data of the questionnaire survey, in which the questionnaire taken in unchanged form from the TEDS-M study was used; the questionnaire was given to students at the very end of their studies. A total of 99 students participated in the research; of these students, 55 were students of Teaching Mathematics at the 1st Level of Primary School and 44 were students of Teaching Mathematics at the 2nd Level of Primary School. Using the independence test for a four-field table, the dependence in five basic areas was established: communication, educational goals, tools and ICT, evaluation and cooperation with parents and teachers.

Keywords:

Mathematics, prospective teachers, preparedness, independence test.