| Nowadays,the accomplishment in mathematical modeling is one of the essential accomplishments advocated by the public opinions to strengthen the talent competitive ability.Mathematics teachers' understanding of the connotation and educational value of mathematical modeling,as well as the mathematics teachers' consciousness and conception of mathematical application will affect the development and achievements of mathematical modeling teaching.That conception of mathematical modeling of prospective mathematics teachers which means the views and understanding of mathematical modeling is investigated in this study,so that helpful suggestions for the cultivation of mathematical modeling accomplishment of prospective mathematics teachers as well as the professional development of teachers can be proposed.This thesis focus on three problems:(1)What are the attitudes and understanding of prospective mathematics teachers with respect to mathematical model and mathematical modeling?(2)What are prospective mathematics teachers' opinions about the educational value of mathematical modeling?(3)What are the differences of the conceptions of mathematical modeling among different groups of men and women who have participated in the mathematical modeling competition and those who haven't?In this research,the data were collected by questionnaires,interviews as well as audio recordings and analyzed by software SPSS 22.0.The conceptions of mathematical modeling of prospective mathematics teachers are explored from the following three aspects: mathematical model,mathematical modeling and mathematical modeling education.Several factors such as the grade,gender,professional achievements,as well as the experience of mathematical modeling competition and their influence on the conceptions of mathematical modeling are discussed.According to the interviews with those prospective mathematics teachers who have participated in the training of the mathematical modeling competition,the effects of mathematical modeling competition and related training on the conception of mathematical modeling and personal development are demonstrated.The research results are presented as follows:First of all,the concepts of mathematical model of prospective mathematics teachers are ambiguous.Overall,prospective mathematics teachers' understanding of the mathematical modeling process is correct,however most of them still have not realized that the purpose of mathematical modeling is to solve practical problems as well as non-mathematical problems;and they have no awareness of that,before generalization and application,the solutions of mathematical model must be tested by practice.Secondly,there is general acceptance on educational value of mathematical modeling among prospective mathematics teachers and there is wide recognition that for students mathematical modeling is more helpful in the understanding of natural science than humanities.Furthermore,it is found that there are no remarkable differences with respect to the conceptions of mathematical modeling between prospective mathematics teachers of different genders and grades.However,those who participated in mathematical modeling competition scored significantly higher than those who have no experience,and students whose professional achievements are amog the top 30% scored remarkably higher than the rest of the students.Moreover,the misconceptions of prospective mathematics teachers have been corrected to a certain extent by the training of the Mathematical Modeling Competition.Combining the discussions in the above problems and the analysis of the data from questionnaires and interviews,two suggestions are proposed at the end of this thesis for strengthening the cultivation of prospective mathematics teachers' modeling accomplishment:(a)including mathematical modeling in teacher education curricula,especially doing mathematical modeling in person;(b)encouraging prospective mathematics teachers to participate in mathematical modeling competitions. |
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