Pre-service Teacher Learning for Mathematical Modelling

Abstract

Evidence has shown that teachers in South Africa often lack the capacity to both connect their mathematics to real-life contexts and struggle to see the internal connections between mathematical concepts. Situating our argument within the ‘critical competence’ and ‘utility’ perspectives, we focus on pre-service teachers’ initial mathematical modelling competencies in a professional development course. Using the notion of modelling competencies with specific reference to the didactic modelling process, we argue that the pre-service teachers’ initial mathematical modelling competencies are at early stages of development.