Investigation of Mathematics Teacher Candidates’ Conceptual Structures about “Measurement” through Word Association Test: The Example of Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine mathematics teacher candidates’ conceptual structures about the concept of “measurement” that is the one of the important learning fields of mathematics. Qualitative research method was used in this study. Participants of this study were 58 mathematics teacher candidates studying in one of the public universities in Turkey. The free word-association test was used as data collection tool. The “Measurement” stimulus concept was presented to mathematics teacher candidates through the free word-association test. A total of 118 response words obtained from the test have been arranged in frequency tables. The response words divided into 9 categories with the help of content analysis. A network of concepts has been created that the conceptual structures of mathematics teacher candidates about “measurement” using the frequencies and categories of response words. The findings of this study indicates that the response words with the highest frequency of the mathematics teacher candidates related to the “measurement” stimulus word are evaluation, exam, length, meter, test, etc. and the categories of response words are meaning of measurement, measurement and evaluation lesson, measurement learning domain, measurement in daily life, measurement units, etc.