A STUDY OF PROSPECTIVE PRIMARY TEACHERS' CONCEPTIONS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SCHOOL GEOMETRY

There are two basic guiding referents in the present investigation: the teaching and learning of school-level geometry (basic concepts of Euclidian geometry and measure) and the analysis of the conceptions of prospective primary teachers in Spain. The work assumes that such conceptions appear and develop during school years, and that consequently, for the prospective teachers to learn to teach mathematics, account must be taken of the requirements that arise from these conceptions themselves and from the prospective teachers' knowledge of school-level mathematics. The objective of the study was to describe and analyse prospective primary teachers' conceptions of school-level geometry and it teaching and learning. To this end, we considered the hypothesis that the students' memories and expectations provide information with which to characterize their conceptions of the field of geometry and its teaching/learning at the primary school level.