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• The requirements in statistics education – comparison of PISA mathematical tasks and tasks from the mathematical textbooks in the field of statistics

  263-275

  Dubravka Glasnović Gracin

  Predrag Vuković

  Views:

  12

  This work presents the results of the analysis of both PISA items and Croatian mathematical textbooks in the field of statistics.
  The analysis shows that PISA's released statistics problems have in many ways different mathematical requirements from the requirements of textbook problems in the statistics chapters, with respect to the mathematical activities, complexity and in the forms of questions. The textbook analysis shows that mathematical examples and problems often require operation and interpretation skills on a reproductive or connections level. Statistics textbook problems are given in the closed-answer form. The results also show that while PISA puts strong emphasis on the statistics field, in the current Croatian curriculum this field is barely present. These discrepancies in requirements and portion of statistics activities surely affect the results of Croatian pupils on PISA assessment in the field of mathematical literacy.

• Analysis of the affective factors of learning mathematics among teacher trainees

  225-254

  Erzsébet Zsinkó

  Views:

  10

  The Hungarian National Core Curricula gives primacy to the development of abilities and the practical application of knowledge. The task of the training programme is primarily to prepare teacher trainees for the teaching and educating profession. As teachers, they are going to plan, organize, help, guide, control and evaluate the learning of mathematics of individuals and groups of students from the age of 6 to 10 (12), and cultivate their mathematical skills, thinking and positive attitude towards any mathematical activities. In order to train educators who are able to meet the above requirements on high standard, it is necessary to update the teacher training programme based on the trainees' preliminary knowledge and motivation level.
  The key to learn about the child's mind and achieve conscious development is the systematization of factual knowledge and methodological awareness. The modern, flexible approach to subject pedagogy, based on pedagogy, psychology and epistemology, qualifies trainees to educate learners who understand and like mathematics. Therefore, it is essential to develop the trainees' positive approach to mathematics and arouse their demand for continuous professional improvement. (Programme of the four-year primary school teacher training, 1995.)
  In our research we are looking for ways of ascertaining the starting parameters which have influence on the planning of the studies of mathematics and subject pedagogy. In this article we introduce a questionnaire by the means of which we collected information on the trainees' attitude and its changing towards mathematics. With the help of the analysis of the answers we paint a picture of the ELTE TÓFK (Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Elementary and Nursery School Teacher's Training) third year students' attitude to the subject, and we compare it to the tendencies noticed in the mass education. The energy invested in learning is influenced by the assumption of the relevance and importance of the subjects. Therefore we considered it also our task to reveal. Besides the students' attitude toward mathematics and their assumption about their own competence we have collected data also on their performance in the subject. Summarising the research results we show the advantages of the questionnaire, and summarise the observations which would indicate need for methodological changes in the mathematics teacher training.

• Über den Vergleich des mathematischen bzw. mathematikdidaktischen Vektorbegriffs durch den Galois-Graphen

  1-12

  László Fatalin

  Views:

  21

  In this article we show how to apply the method of Galois-graph – one of the means of the formal concept-analysis in order to coordinate the mathematical and didactical requirements. As an example we have chosen the concept of the "vector". As a result of the analysis it is proved that, in elaborating the right vector concept the geometric and algebraic foundations are both needed. The analysis also points out that the geometric model, based on the concept of the "directed segment" is unnecessarily overemphasized in the East-European education.