An analysis of mathematics meanings for newcomers mathematics undergraduate students

Abstract

Anxiety, aversion and rejection are frequent feelings verbalized by students when they are faced with mathematics. This paper brings a report of a research project, carried out by the Center for Research and Studies in Mathematics Education (NUPEm) of the Federal University of Uberlandia (UFU). The researchers believed that undergraduate students, who chose apply for mathematics teaching courses, conceive meanings that are not shared by a large part of the population. We started the investigation from the assumption that it is necessary to understand such meanings, because they would be responsable for reproduce a pedagogical culture that will influence the practices of these professionals in the future. In this research, in relation to mathematics, we sought to analyze the meanings and reveal the sense about the experiences of a group of 21 students, who were initiating an undergraduate Mathematics course in 2019. As methodological path, we chose to use hermeneutical phenomenology as instrument for the analysis of poems written individually by these begginer undergradute students. It was considered that free writing through poems would be an useful tool to identify the expression of lived experiences and meanings attributed by future teachers about mathematics. After reading and reflecting on the contents of the poems, three emerging categories were revealed: feelings expressed by students in relation to mathematics; role played by mathematics in the society; and conceptions about what mathematics is. Based on the analysis of these categories, we described and discussed dichotomous phenomena in relation to curricula, which require caution throughout undergraduate teachers courses.

Undergraduate teachers training; Conceptions about mathematics; Phenomenology; Poems; Pedagogical culture