Un estudio sobre los niveles de Van Hiele en maestros de Educación Primaria en formación y en ejercicio. Algunos resultados preliminares

Abstract

This study has a double aim. On one hand, to establish, analyse and compare the geometric reasoning levels of van Hiele of pre-service and inservice Primary Mathematics teachers. On the other hand, we investigate if there are differences of the level according to the kind of the participants in the study. The participants were 183 teachers and future primary teachers, 68 inservice teachers and 115 students of the third course of the Teacher's Degree in Primary Education. The Test of geometric understanding developed by Usiskin (Usiskin, 1982) is used like instrument of analysis. The results showed that both student teachers and in-service teachers, are mostly in the levels 1 and 2 of geometric thinking. These results are lower than can be expected if we consider that the appropriate level for teaching Geometry in Primary Education should be at least one level superior of that we expect to achieve the pupils (Afonso, Camacho-Machín y Socas, 2009, p. 358), that is to say, the level 3 of geometric thinking. These results differ from those obtained in Turkey by Halat y Şahin (2008) for pre-service and in-service mathematics teachers.