Investigating changes in prospective teachers' views of a 'good teacher' while engaging in computerized project-based learning

Prospective teachers' (PT) beliefs and views regarding teaching and learning affect the way they teach after they have graduated. Often, these views are a consequence of their past experience as pupils themselves. In recent years there has been a great effort toward changing the teaching and learning of mathematics, which raises the need to generate a change in views and beliefs. The present study aims at exploring the effect of learning via computerized project-based learning (CPBL) on the change in views of third year prospective mathematics teachers regarding the image of the 'good teacher.' To assess the change in views of our pre-service teachers regarding the image of the 'good teacher,' an integrated tool was employed: two open questionnaires, written portfolios, and transcripts of class discussions. In this paper we focus mainly on results obtained from the questionnaires, supported by evidence from the portfolios, and show that CPBL is an effective approach for supporting the change in views of our pre-service mathematics teachers regarding the image of the 'good teacher.'