How Hungarian teachers think about combinatorics and its teaching

Teachers’ attitudes and beliefs have a fundamental influence on the way of teaching and the efficiency of learning. This topic was also brought up in the didactic research in recent years, in connection with mathematics teachers as well.– To the best of our knowledge, however, a study that investigates this specific area (combinatorics) was not included. As combinatorics has a special role in connecting the development of mathematical thinking and teaching different areas, our short-time Project (Didactics Grant of the Hungarian Academy: Complex Mathematics Education in the 21st Century) focused on the teaching of combinatorics in Hungary. Our aim was to examine some aspects of this field in connection with Tamás Varga’s method and also teachers’ beliefs towards combinatorics with the help of a questionnaire. The main results of this survey are discussed below.