CHANGE IN PERCEPTION OF PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS REGARDING THE IMAGE OF THE TEACHER AS A RESULT OF ENGAGEMENT IN A COMPUTERIZED ENVIRONMENT Ilana Lavy Atara Shriki The Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel Oranim Academic College of Education Abstract Calls for implementing a reform in mathematics education inspired the creation of new roles attributed to teachers. It is the teacher educators’ responsibility to provide students with proper learning experiences. Such experiences should support the development of the students’ abilities and skills and to enable them to adjust their teaching to the spirit of the reform. The present study aims at examining the change in prospective teachers’ views regarding the image of the teacher as a result of experiencing a computerized project-based learning approach. In order to achieve this aim, we analyzed data received from two open questionnaires and written portfolios. The analysis revealed that experiencing learning in a computer-based environment has the potential to support the professional growth of prospective teachers in terms of developing their ability to reexamine the teacher’s roles. Introduction In recent years, mathematics teacher educators have been calling to implement a reform in mathematics education (e.g. NCTM standards, 2000). The NCTM standards had influenced the development of a vision regarding the image of the new generation of teachers, and suggested various guidelines and ideas for qualifying them. In designing teacher training programs, teacher educators should consider the fact that prospective teachers (PT) begin their math methods course with interconnected ideas about mathematics, about teaching and learning mathematics, and about schools (Ball, 1988). These ideas are originated in their past experience as school students, and will eventually shape and affect their practice as mathematics teachers in the future (Skott, 2001). Most PT were taught school mathematics during the 1990s when reform documents were only beginning to affect the curriculum, resulting in having only a modicum of learning experiences that captured the spirit and vision of the standards (Lee, 2005). Consequently, PT’s perceptions regarding the image of the teacher are not compatible with the image as portrayed by the standards. It is the teacher educators’ responsibility to support their PT in developing insight as regards to the meaning of teaching and learning mathematics in various settings. For that matter teacher training Working Group 9 CERME 5 (2007) 1439