Evaluating Pre-Service Teachers’ Design of Mathematical Modelling Tasks

Abstract

This study aims to examine pre-service teachers’ competencies in designing authentic mathematical modelling tasks. The participants of this study were 22 pre-service teachers enrolled in a mathematical modelling course during their second year in a mathematics teacher education program. The participants designed 20 problems, which were evaluated based on four criteria for mathematical modelling: reality, openness, complexity, and model eliciting. The results indicate that even though the participants were successful in developing problems that had real-world scenarios, only five of them were classified as modelling problems. The majority of the problems fulfilled the reality criterion (12 out of 17); only five of them fulfilled the criteria of openness and model eliciting, and only six of them fulfilled the criterion of complexity. These findings contribute to the importance of supporting teachers’ competencies in the teaching and learning of mathematical modelling for integration into K-12 classrooms.