Is it Possible to Design a Math-Art Instructional Practice? Cases of Pre-service Teachers

To many people, establishing relationships between mathematics and art is difficult or surprising. However, these two disciplines are quite interrelated. Today, the literature of mathematics reveals that there has been an increasing interest in interaction between these two disciplines. As also observed in our country, the studies on relationships between mathematics and art have gained more popularity in mathematics education. There is a course entitled, "Mathematics and Art" offered as one of elective courses and taught for ten years to juniors of the Department of Secondary Mathematics Education, Dokuz Eylul University. The course covers a wide range of activities derived from relationships between mathematics and music to activities derived from those between mathematics and handicraft. In this study, cases of pre-service teachers attending this course were analysed. They were asked to do an instructional design integrating mathematics into art at secondary education level. Their designs were analyzed based on the use of art in which contexts and for what purposes. Furthermore, their designs were analyzed in terms of whether they enhance learning. This qualitative study had a case study design. The participants were 43 pre-service mathematics teachers voluntarily selected from students taking the course. Descriptive analysis was done to analyze the data. As a consequence of the analysis, math-art instructional practices developed by pre- service teachers were clustered under three primary categories (good, average and inadequate). The majority of math- art instructional practices were categorized under the average category. In the study, these categories were described and cases in each category were discussed.