Kuramsal Eğitimbilim Dergisi, cilt.6, sa.4, ss.455-476, 2013 (Hakemli Dergi)
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 Eylül 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 preservice teachers were clustered under three primary categories (good, average and inadequate). The majority of mathart instructional practices were categorized under the average category. In the study, these categories were described
and cases in each category were discussed.