Improving Prospective Teachers’ Beliefs About a Double Discontinuity Between School Mathematics and University Mathematics

Prospective teachers often perceive a “double discontinuity” between school mathematics and university mathematics. The first discontinuity can be described as the belief that there is no coherence between school mathematics and university mathematics, which forms part of the notoriously problematic transition from school to university. The second discontinuity can be described as a belief about the lack of relevance of university mathematics for the later professional practice of prospective teachers. Beliefs about coherence and relevance have been known to impact prospective mathematics teachers’ interests and academic success. In this paper, we discuss an intervention involving 72 prospective secondary school mathematics teachers, aimed at influencing their beliefs about coherence and relevance. For this, we refer to the construct of beliefs as the main part of our theoretical framework, as well as the sub-constructs of beliefs regarding coherence and relevance. We then describe an intervention implemented within the first two years of mathematics courses, involving so-called “teacher-oriented” tasks that aim to trigger reflection on the benefit of university mathematics for teaching mathematics in school. The effect of the intervention was measured with a pretest-posttest experimental design using a questionnaire concerning teachers’ beliefs about coherence and relevance. Our results show that the prospective teachers’ beliefs about coherence and relevance generally decrease during the semester. However, statistically significant differences between the treatment group and a control group were found, especially regarding their beliefs about relevance.