A Survey of Elementary School Teachers' Perceptions of the Beauty of Mathematics

In order to teach students the aesthetic value of mathematics, teachers must first recognize such value in various aspects. Accordingly, this study investigated elementary school teachers' perceptions of beautiful mathematics problems and the 'aesthetics of mathematics. The responses were classified by undergraduate major using the repeated constant comparison method, and then frequency analysis and qualitative analysis were conducted in parallel. The conclusions from the research results are as follows. First, the areas of problems that perceive beauty differ by undergraduate major, and teachers who majored in other fields presented beautiful mathematics problems in various areas. Second, most of the elementary school teachers had specific beliefs about the beauty of mathematics and gave explicit explanations for their beautiful mathematics problems. Third, teachers who majored in mathematics education tended to perceive the beauty of mathematics because of its mathematical beauty, while teachers who majored in other fields tended to perceive the beauty of mathematics because of its usefulness. Fourth, teachers who majored in mathematics education had a higher percentage of beliefs related to mathematical beauty than to the usability of mathematics. The results of this study can provide basic data for research on the aesthetics of mathematics and contribute to raising teachers' awareness of the aesthetic value aspects of mathematics.