Abstract:

Commonly, when you talk about university studies, the image of learning and studying is seen as examinations and studying alone. According to current conception of learning, learning occurs at its best in social learning environments where the emphasis is on interaction and collaboration. This conception fits well also to adult learning.

In Kokkola University Consortium pre-service teacher education program multiform learning takes place in small groups. Learning tasks are based on social -constructivist learning conception where collaborative learning is seen as a process of peer interaction and where the emphasis is on investigating, understanding and sharing meaningful experiences. Adult students are able to share their own experiences and know-how through the learning tasks and expand earlier knowledge and understanding together with peer students.

This article focuses on another kind of study possibility based on hands-on implementation. The examples of mathematics' learning tasks will present possibilities to learn and study according to social- constructivist conception of learning. In this study the learning tasks form an integrated whole in terms of mathematics study unit in relation to primary school curriculum contents. In the beginning of the study unit, the pre-service students became familiar with the structures of Place value system with the help of the Base five numeration system. The purpose in this task was to set the pre-service students in primary school students' role to make them undergo similar learning experiences than young students will meet when they learn new subject matters. The other purpose of the task was to make the pre-service students think over what is meaningful in learning processes. After the Base five numeration system- task, the pre-service students were ask to choose the following learning task. Each student group had to get acquainted with one central mathematics' primary school curriculum content. The task was to create web based learning material that would serve both teachers and students.

This article will show:
a) how creating learning environments, tasks, situations and learning processes creative and multidimensional will support deeper understanding and helps pre-service students to see math studies diversified.
b) how pre-service teachers will get a pedagogical model to create modern, student centered math learning environments.

Keywords:

Adult learners, pre-service teachers, mathematics, learning task.