Research Information System
Acta Didactica Napocensia, vol.12, no.1, pp.165-176, 2019 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Algebra, which is one of the learning domains of mathematics, is one of the most
difficult ones for students as operative and semantic. For this reason, it is necessary to emphasize
required importance on teaching algebra from early periods. Teachers have major roles in this
process. The courses, taken by pre-service teachers in undergraduate, about teaching algebra in the
learning environments and the studies done with them about teaching algebra have importance. In
order to deal with the difficulties about teaching and learning algebra, Bottoms (2003) claims that
students should become ready for further topics about algebra from middle school to until the
duration of high school period. In regard to this view, five different process indicators and 12
different content indicators were determined. Three levels were determined for the indicators as
basic, proficient and advanced (SREB, 2008). The purpose of this study is to examine the activities
and problems oriented toward algebra readiness indicators, proposed by pre-service mathematics
teachers in terms of levels introduced by SREB (2008). The study is based on qualitative research
methodology. Participants of the study are 23 pre-service mathematics teachers from a public
university in Turkey. The study was done in 2017-2018 fall term. The data was analyzed with
respect to content analysis and descriptive statistics. Findings showed that whereas 65.22% of preservice mathematics teachers proposed activities in the level of basic and proficient, 56.23% of
them developed activities in advanced level. Besides, it was also reached that pre-service teachers
proposed at least one activity for each level. Yet, proposed activities and problems were not related
to daily life contexts.