The Views of Primary School Mathematics Teachers about Mathematics Project Studies in Schools (Pages: 370-380)
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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to search the knowledge of primary school mathematics teachers about projects and their opinions about projects and project competitions. The projects which were started to use together with the renewed education programs are methods which allow students to access new information by searching a subject that they want. In the research, first a survey which was prepared by the researchers was conducted together with 72 primary school mathematics teachers who are working in the city of Istanbul. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 6 teachers which were selected among them. After the data had been analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, the findings of the study were interpreted. At the end of the study, it was concluded that most of the teachers were using projects in mathematics lessons and students of those teachers also participated in project competitions; however the knowledge of teachers about projects was insufficient and in addition to that projects and project competitions were not supported by parents and schools.
Keywords
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to search the knowledge of primary school mathematics teachers about projects and their opinions about projects and project competitions. The projects which were started to use together with the renewed education programs are methods which allow students to access new information by searching a subject that they want. In the research, first a survey which was prepared by the researchers was conducted together with 72 primary school mathematics teachers who are working in the city of Istanbul. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 6 teachers which were selected among them. After the data had been analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, the findings of the study were interpreted. At the end of the study, it was concluded that most of the teachers were using projects in mathematics lessons and students of those teachers also participated in project competitions; however the knowledge of teachers about projects was insufficient and in addition to that projects and project competitions were not supported by parents and schools.
Keywords
- The percentage of teachers who thought that project works increased the interest of students to the lessons was 77, 78%. It was seen that while 38, 89 % of teachers thought that projects played an important role in increasing success in SBS examination, 31, 94% of teachers were undecided on this issue and 29, 17% of teachers disagreed with this idea. This situation has similarities with the studies of Şahin (2009) and Başbay (2009).
- The percentage of teachers who thought that project works had a positive impact on the retention of information was 77, 78%. This situation has similarities with the studies of Başbay (2006) and Çakan (2005).
- While the percentage of teachers who thought that parents were supporting project works was 40, 28 %, the percentage of teachers who though that parents were not supporting project works was 27, 78% and the percentage of undecided teachers was 31, 94%. This situation has similarities with the studies of Kurak (2009) and Şahin (2009).
- To the question of ‘Which criteria do you use to evaluate project works?’ generally answers such as originality, whether it was made by students or not, the compliance with goals and objectives’ were given. Şahin (2009) concluded in his study that teachers did not possess sufficient information to evaluate projects.
- To the question of ‘What are the advantages and disadvantages of project works according to you? most of the teachers indicated the advantages as projects make students to be able to think all sides, projects can connect mathematics to the daily life by putting theoretical knowledge into practice, projects can positively contribute to the sense of responsibility of the students, projects can improve self-confidence on students, projects can provide permanent information for students, Projects can help teachers to identify the talented students, projects can give the sense of discovery to the students. Most of the teachers thought that projects had many advantages with regards to its disadvantages. The findings stated in the study of Kurak (2009) have also similarities with the results of this study. 51, 4% of the teachers agreed with the statement of ‘I think that project works can develop sense of responsibility in students’. When the findings related with the thoughts about the subjects were learnt on the application level not by memorization were analyzed, it appeared that 54, 5 % of teachers agreed on this issue. This situation has similarities with the studies of Başbay (2009) and Çakan (2005). Among the answers about the disadvantages of the projects, there were answers like the difficulty of doing projects due to lack of equipments and physical conditions, carrying out and doing projects produce spending much time outside the classroom for teachers and students and students, parents and school administrations do not open to project works because of their concern about SBS examination. This situation has similarities with the studies of Kurak (2009), Başbay (2006) and Çakan (2005).
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