ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' ATTITUDE TOWARDS GRAPHS

This study examined pre-service elementary education teachers' attitude towards graphs. Attitude was defined in terms of six aspects: Effort, Value, Cognitive competency, Affect, Difficulty and Interest. Data was collected through a questionnaire. Pre-service teachers felt they had cognitive competence for graphing, valued graphs and expressed affection for graphs regardless of their perceived difficulties and low interest in graphs. Value was the only aspect that correlated with all other five aspects, in particular with Affect. Surprisingly, the number of mathematics courses taken by pre-service teachers did not make any difference in their attitude towards graphs. However, the number of science courses they took in high school made a difference in their attitude towards graphs. These findings have implications for teacher education and mathematics and science teaching and learning.