The Connection between Children's Literature and Mathematics: Reflections from Problem Posing Situations of Prospective Mathematics Teachers

Utilizing interdisciplinary connections in teaching mathematics increases the quality of teaching and makes learning more effective and permanent. In this study, the connection between children’s literature and mathematics was discussed and this connection was examined through problem posing. The relevant research was conducted with a case study design, which is one of the qualitative research methods. In this direction, 6-week tasks were carried out intermittently for prospective mathematics teachers regarding the connection between children’s literature and mathematics. As a result of these tasks, prospective mathematics teachers were asked to pose as many problems as they could using a visual in a book of children’s literature. 66 mathematical problems posed by 27 prospective mathematics teachers were evaluated descriptively with the problem posing evaluation criteria including the themes of “Content”, “Mathematical Connection” and “Creativity”, and the frequencies for the themes were presented in a table. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the connection between children’s literature and mathematics positively affected the mathematical connection skills and creativity of the prospective teachers. At the same time, it was observed that the number of problem-solving strategies used in the problems posed by the prospective teachers was high and the most preferred problem-solving strategy was mathematical reasoning.