Are Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers' Teaching Concerns Related to Their Epistemological Beliefs?

The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effect of year on pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs and their teaching concerns as well as to investigate the relationship between teaching concerns and epistemological beliefs. One hundred seventy seven mathematics pre-service teachers enrolled in the Department of Secondary Mathematics Education in two universities participated in the present study. Two instruments: Teaching Concerns Checklist and Schommer Epistemological Questionnaire were used for data collection. Two MANOVAs were conducted to determine the effect of year on pre-service mathematics teachers' epistemological beliefs and their teaching concerns. In order to find out the relationship between pre-service teachers' teaching concerns and their epistemological beliefs, canonical analysis was conducted. It was found that there were no significant mean differences among pre-service teachers attending different years regarding teaching concerns, whereas there was a significant effect of year on pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs. Apart from that, canonical analysis revealed a significant relationship between teaching concerns and epistemological beliefs.