PRE-SERVICE PRIMARY TEACHER ATTITUDES TOWARDS MATHEMATICS

Mathematics is an important part of the educational system. Learning mathematics is necessary for an individual's full development in today's complex society. Often, however, we encounter negative attitudes of pupils towards mathematics. The results of the international TIMSS and PISSA researches show that Czech pupils basically do not like mathematics. We investigate attitudes towards mathematics of future primary-school mathematics teachers. In this paper, the authors analyse the partial research results of ATM (Attitudes towards Mathematics). The ATM research was focused on identification of attitudes towards mathematics of student primary-school teachers. The main research method was the semantic differential method. The data used were collected by a special questionnaire for the measurement of attitudes. The collected data measure two basic attitude factors - evaluation and energy. These factors were represented as a set of points in the so-called "semantic space". The authors present a two-dimensional semantic space in which students documented the position of mathematics relative to other selected subjects. Changing attitudes towards mathematics were monitored, by subjective student retrospection of their primary school years. Detailed in the paper is the design of a questionnaire to measure teacher attitude, the validity of scales (by factor analysis and cluster analysis) and the reliability of measurement. In the article, the authors consider the possibility of a wider use of the semantic differential method in determining attitudes.