Undergraduates’ conceptions of mathematics teaching and learning: an empirical study

Previous research in mathematics education has explored teachers’ conceptions of mathematics and its teaching and learning, and how their instructional tendencies (e.g., “traditional”, “technological”, “spontaneous” and “investigative”) relate to these conceptions. However, empirical evidence on this topic from large samples of pre-service teachers is limited. This study adapts and validates an instrument originally designed for in-service teachers to analyse the conceptions of mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning. This was done in a sample of undergraduate students in several different degree programmes (primary education, mathematics, and the education itinerary in psychology) in a Spanish university. Existing theory about instructional tendencies and conceptions of mathematics teaching and learning that was developed in the context of in-service teachers is then re-examined in the context of empirical evidence from this sample of individuals (all potential future teachers) without teaching experience. Results show that items from the instrument can be separated into four factors focussed on investigative stances, the role of textbooks, the role of teachers and lesson planning. Individual participants are not characterised by single tendencies; rather, they can be described in terms of several combinations of tendencies, grouped into four clusters. In line with the previous literature on in-service teachers, results suggest that conceptions of mathematics and its teaching and learning are not best captured by rigid, sharply delineated profiles. Rather, individuals configure their own conceptions in terms of combinations of different characteristics of prototypical tendencies.