Teacher Candidates' Understanding and Appraoches to Errors About Matrices

The aim of this study is to examine the ability of pre-service mathematics teachers to detect errors made in solving questions about matrices. The study particularly focused on revealing the internalization of the teachings such as the meanings and relational dimensions of concepts and operations about matrix. The study was conducted with 26 teacher candidates at a university in the Eastern Anatolia Region. They were given a written exam, and their responses were analyzed by two field experts. The results showed that the pre-service teachers did not fully understand the concepts and operations of matrices. They made a variety of errors, including misconceptions and incomplete understanding. They were also not very good at solving proof-based questions. However, they were more successful at solving problems that were based on plain logic or could be solved using rules.