A Letter to My Teacher: Perceptions of Middle School Students and Pre-Service Mathematic Teachers of Their Mentor Teacher

This research was conducted to determine the perceptions of pre-service teachers and middle school students towards mathematics teachers. For this purpose, the perceptions of both the pre-service teachers and students regarding six mathematics teachers were discussed comparatively. The research method is case study. The data of this study were collected through reflective letters of pre-service teachers (f=35) and students of these teachers (f=105) to six middle school mathematics teachers. The collected data were analyzed in the MAXQDA qualitative data analysis program. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that pre-service teachers and middle school students had positive and negative perceptions towards the mentor teacher in the categories of designing the learning-teaching process, attitude and classroom management. When the perceptions of middle school students towards their teachers were examined, it was seen that the positive attitude towards the teacher standed out. While the students mentioned less about classroom management, it was seen that pre-service teachers talked more about and they were able to evaluate teachers from different perspectives in the context of classroom management. However, it has seen that both pre-service teachers and students have more negative perceptions about the design of the learning-teaching process than positive perceptions. In addition, it was determined that the negative perceptions of the preservice teachers about the mentor teachers standed out, while the students' perceptions of their teachers were more positive. [This paper was presented at the International Conference on Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology (ICEMST) symposium, 2023.]