PRESERVICE MIDDLE SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ CONCEPTION OF AUXILIARY ELEMENTS OF TRIANGLES

Abstract

In the literature, there have been research examining different grade levels of students’ understanding of geometric shapes such as triangles and their main elements as well as their auxiliary elements. The purpose of the current study is to investigate preservice middle school mathematics teachers’ (PMSMT) conception of auxiliary elements of triangles. In order to achieve this, the activity sheets about definitions, constructions, and properties of auxiliary elements of triangles were designed and conducted to 23 junior PMSMT. The PMSMT engaged in these activity sheets. The data were collected through their written works and it was analyzed based on the content analysis which is a type of qualitative data analysis technique. It was found that, the PMSMT could effectively define auxiliary elements of triangles. However, they had difficulty in the properties and related theorems about auxiliary elements.