The purpose of this study is to examine pre-service middle school mathematics teachers' (mis)conceptions related to definitions, classifications, and inclusion relations of convex quadrilaterals through a case study research design. The participants of the study were 20 pre-service middle school mathematics teachers who attended a must course, "The Methods of Teaching Mathematics" in a public university in Ankara, Turkey. Purposive sampling strategy was used to select the participants. The data were collected through an achievement test before and after taking the methods of teaching mathematics course. The findings of the study revealed that pre-service teachers had misconceptions in hierarchical classification of quadrilaterals, dual inclusion relations (e.g., rhombus-trapezoid), and difficulty in formulating minimal definitions of quadrilaterals before taking the course. However, the findings also indicated that the course had a positive impact for eliminating those misconceptions and supporting their conceptions. Several suggestions were made based on these findings.
Advancements in science and technology are mobilizing higher education landscapes into borderless settings. Such changes also urge higher education settings to adopt transformative learning opportunities into their curriculum policy. Universities are accountable for helping youth build on their 21st Century competences by highlighting societal issues at global levels such as climate change, refugee crises or big human movements due to poverty, politics, conflicts, wars, or natural disasters. Youth need to build on knowledge, skills, and competences to recognize that any crises in one location can have an immediate impact on neighboring countries primarily and the whole world and challenge their potential to act as global citizens in their deeds and decisions as future change agents for a peaceful future. In this paper, we highlight the need to invest in global citizenship capabilities that will enable higher education students to go beyond their academic settings and network with international students via digital tools. In this paper, higher education students are regarded as future change agents who are willing to develop accountability toward the entire globe by investing in their socio-ecological, socio-critical and socio-emotional capabilities.
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