Kaplan, AbdullahDoruk, MuhammetÖzdemir, Furkan2019-12-202019-12-202015Kaplan, A., Doruk, M., & Özdemir, F. (2015). Opinions Of Pre-Service Primary Mathematics Teachers About Problem Solving And Proving. Middle Eastern & African Journal Of Educational Research, 14, 31-47.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12604/2329This study aims to reveal different aspects of the opinions of pre-service primary mathematics teachers about problem solving and proof. Accordingly, the research is carried out on 158 pre-service teachers studying at all grades of primary mathematics teaching in a state university in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey during 2013-2014 academic year fall semester. The study concludes that most of the students define a problem as a "statement waiting to be solved". Majority of the pre-service teachers understand problem solving as "overcoming challenges". Most of the pre-service teachers define proof as "verification or falsification" and "explanation", and accordingly, proving as "verifying or falsifying" and "explaining". Pre-service teachers stated that the major difference between proving and problem solving is while the former is a verification, the latter is an activity of reaching a result. It is concluded that opinions of pre-service teachers about the relation between problem solving and proving are not distinctive. Moreover, opinions of pre-service teachers are evaluated and discussed according to grades.trinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessMathematical proofproblem solvingmathematics educationArticle143147