Construction of Inclusion Relations of Quadrilaterals: Analysis of Pre-Service Elementary Mathematics Teachers’ Lesson Plans

Abstract

This research was aimed to find out pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ perceptions on special quadrilaterals and inclusion relations of them and draw their common cognitive paths. In order to reach this aim, this research was designed under qualitative approach and was used document analysis method. The participants of the study were 68 pre-service teachers continuing their 4th year of elementary mathematics teacher education programme at a faculty of education. The data was obtained by the lesson plans which were prepared by the participants. Based on the data, it was determined that the pre-service mathematics teachers had some misconceptions regarding the inclusion relations of quadrilaterals. In addition, it was identified that the “common cognitive path” in terms of quadrilaterals associations was parallelogram / rhombus, square / rectangle and square / rhombus association.