Abstract:

Traditionally, mathematics educational theorists try to show pre-service teachers how to handle their learners’ errors. Pre-service teachers should understand that an error is a means of academic achievement rather than something undesirable and feared. Limiting learners’ erroneous performance in the educational process does not improve learning but on the contrary leads to decreased independence, because in the learning process, in the acquisition of mathematical concepts and in solving mathematical tasks, an error is a natural phenomenon. Under precisely specified conditions, an error does not jeopardize the learning process, but in some cases is a source of permanent and solid learning. To be able to handle a learner’s error or even use it for the learner’s personality development is a significant competence of future mathematics teachers.

The main objective of the paper is to present the results of a research study carried out in two university faculties in the Czech Republic where future primary school teachers are trained. Each participating faculty uses a different didactic approach to teaching mathematics. The research comprised a total of 121 students. The authors used a questionnaire of their own design, which included a total of 14 items, mostly with forced choice. The paper focused primarily on the following two areas: overall assessment of one’s preparedness for error handling in mathematics classes, and assessment of the quality of university training of error handling. In these areas the respondents commented on their own preparedness for assessing learners’ performance in mathematics, searching for relevant resources and literature concerning error handling, etc.

The students were observed to have low self-efficacy in the area of error handling, although they had previous theoretical experience. It was further observed that the method of training of pre-service teachers affected their self-efficacy in the area of error handling.

Keywords:

Self-efficacy, mathematics, teacher, error handling, learner, assessment, reflection.