The Preservice Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Opinions About the Nature of Proof

The aim of this study is to investigate the opinions of the preservice middle school mathematics teachers about the nature of proof. Among the qualitative research methods, case study was used in the study. Three senior preservice teachers who were at the department of mathematics education in a public university were taken to the study via criterion sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants by using “Interview Questions Form about the Nature of Proof” which was consisted of open-ended questions. The interview data were analyzed by the content analysis method. After the content analysis, it was determined that preservice teachers responded under the basic categories named: “generalizing”,“method”, “reaching the validity”, “problem solving”, and “focusing on the form”. The results of the study showed that preservice mathematics teachers had problems in giving definitions of the proof, defining the things which constitute the proof, determining the things required for a successful proof; shortly in understanding the nature of proof