KNOWLEDGE AND IMAGES OF PRE-SERVICE ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is related to awareness, ideas, imagination, and effort. Entrepreneurship training is now being carried out in order to increase the extent of entrepreneurial activities. In this regard, when entrepreneurship education practices are examined in many countries, it is seen that students are introduced to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education before they reach high school. In Turkey, entrepreneurship skills are among the basic skills in all curriculum programs since 2005. By establishing relations through images, people build stronger and understandable connections when they encounter a new concept or new knowledge. In this respect, the aim of this study is to reveal pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ perceptions of entrepreneurship and the skills of the concept from freshmen to seniors in terms of what they know from their previous and current educational experiences and their perceptions about the importance of the concept of entrepreneurship. Twelve pre-service elementary mathematics teachers (6 women and 6 men) from each grade level for a total of 48 pre-service teachers (24 women and 24 men) studying at Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University participated in the study. During the selection process of the participants, only voluntary participants were considered. As a data collection tool, the interview protocol, which included 6 questions and was based on the literature, was prepared by the researcher. Data were collected through interviews, and interviews took approximately 40 minutes for each participant. The content analysis technique was used in the analysis of the collected data. The data were analyzed under headings of the prior knowledge and perceptions of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship skills, the importance of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship skills, the place of entrepreneurship in daily life, and findings about images of entrepreneurship skills. According to the findings of the research, it is concluded that the concepts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship skills are not sufficiently heard of or recognized among pre-service elementary mathematics teachers. As the image categories of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship skills, 4 image categories and related subcategories were determined for entrepreneurship. For “entrepreneurship skills,” 3 image categories and related subcategories were determined. Entrepreneurship training can be given in entrepreneurship courses or teaching courses in faculties of education. In these courses, not only theoretical knowledge about entrepreneurship skills, which are among the skills that should be acquired by individuals within the scope of lifelong learning, but also studies involving applications can be applied for pre-service teachers. There is no previous study in the literature that reveals the knowledge and images of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers regarding the concepts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship skills. Therefore, other studies that support the results of this study should be pursued.

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