Upper secondary physics teachers’ views of mathematics

Physics teachers at upper secondary school indirectly teach mathematics in their physics classes through their teaching strategies and preferred ways of using mathematics. Their views of physics and mathematics are important for the way they depict mathematics to the students. A web-questionnaire was administered to Swedish physics teachers. Part of the questions investigated views of mathematics, i.e. as a means for application, as a schema, as a formal construct or as processes. Mathematics as a means for application was the dominant opinion. Students’ lack of knowledge in mathematics was regarded as a problem to many of the teachers, and particularly problem solving and modelling. Students’ conceptual and relevance proficiencies in mathematics were less problematical.