The Relationship between Preservice Elementary Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs and Metacognitive Awareness

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the metacognitive awareness and the beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning of preservice elementary mathematics teachers and to explore the relationship between the two. The Metacognitive Awareness Instrument (MAI) and the Mathematics Beliefs Instrument (MBI) were implemented with 118 elementary mathematics preservice teachers studying in a large urban university in northwestern Turkey during the 2011-2012 academic year. Statistical analysis results revealed that elementary mathematics preservice teachers’ knowledge about cognition and regulation of cognition specific domains of metacognition did predict together their beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning.