Reflections of Mathematical and Mathematics Educational Values on Pedagogical Formation Students' Teaching Preferences

As in all fields, values are an important component of classroom’s affective environment in mathematics course, too, and have a significant impact on students’ mathematical efforts. As it would directly affect classroom practices and learning, it is deemed important to determine preservice teachers’ value profiles. This research aimed to address mathematical and mathematics educational values of mathematics students receiving pedagogical formation in terms of constructivist and positivist approaches and examine these values along with their opinions on the use of different teaching strategies, methods and techniques (SMTs) in courses. The participants were 288 mathematics students receiving pedagogical formation at two public universities. As data collection instruments, Mathematical and Mathematics Educational Values Scale and a written interview form were used to associate their values with their teaching preferences. The study concluded a significant difference in favor of constructivist values when comparing participants’ levels of having positivist values with their levels of constructivist values. The findings achieved from the interview forms indicated that majority of participants preferred student-centered teaching strategies, methods and techniques; in other words, they regarded themselves rather as constructivists

Readability of Texts in Secondary School Mathematics Course Books

This study aimed to investigate the readability of the fifth-, sixth, seventh and eighth-grade mathematics course books prepared in deference to the 2017 curriculum and distributed to schools by MEB. This study utilized the descriptive document analysis which is a qualitative research method. Readability of the mathematics course books were subjected to a quantitative analysis by Çetinkaya-Uzun Readability Formula. Addressing the readability levels of the texts in secondary mathematics course books, this study performed analyses of average word and average sentence lengths of the texts in secondary school course books. These analyses showed that there is no linear correlation between grade level and word and sentence length averages. Readability scores and levels of the text in the analyzed secondary school mathematics course books are not in parallel with the grade level. Accordingly, readability scores of information and solution texts in the fifth-grade course book were lower than the scores in other grades' course books whereas readability scores of question texts were lower than the scores in all grades' course books but the eighth-grade course book. Readability levels of the text in the analyzed secondary school mathematics course book were found to be on frustration level and educational level. Course books should also include independent texts with readability scores and levels

Effects of Digital Storytelling in Mathematics Instruction on Academic Achievement and Examination of Teacher-Student Opinions on the Process

Storytelling is a popular instrument used in every domain of natural and social interaction for human communication and commonly used in classrooms to enrich the learning experience. With the use of technological tools in every field of our daily lives, its use in educational environments has become inevitable and in parallel with the development of these tools, digital stories have started to replace traditional storytelling. Digital storytelling offers advantages such as providing diverse applications in the classroom environment, personalizing the learning experience, being interesting, helping difficult subjects explained, addressing real-life-related situations, supporting active learning, allowing for the creation of costless learning environments, and improving motivation and achievement. Materializing a course such as mathematics in which abstract concepts are given, helping students use the learned information with stories and associate it with daily life, developing activities to make learning environments enjoyable when learning and applying by taking students away from the traditional understanding of instruction are considered some of the most important duties of teachers in this process. In accordance with the related considerations, this study aims to investigate the effects of mathematics courses instructed by association with digital storytelling on 8th-grade students’ academic achievements and the teacher and student opinions on the application process. The study using the quasi-experimental method was conducted with 58 students. The Achievement Test, written opinion forms to receive student opinions and interview form for teacher were prepared by the researchers to this end. At the end of the study, although no statistically significant differences were found between the groups in the posttest and the delayed-posttest in terms of academic achievement score averages of the students in the experimental group were found to be higher than the score averages of the students in the control group. The results achieved in this study show that digital storytelling is a powerful instrument to create more interesting and enjoyable learning environments which facilitate association with daily life, allow for effective learning and participation. It was also stated that the students and the mathematics teacher had positive opinions on use of digital stories in the courses and its contribution to the courses

An Application of Flipped Classroom Method in the Instructional Technologies and Material Development Course

A natural outcome of change in technology, new approaches towards teaching and learning have emerged and the applicability of the flipped classroom method, a new educational strategy, in the field of education has started to be discussed. It was aimed with the study to examine the effect of using flipped classroom method in academic achievements and motivations of students and reveal the student opinions. The quasi-experimental method was used in this study and the participants were 50 sophomores that studying Elementary Mathematics Education in a state university. The results of the study shows that flipped classroom method does not have a significant effect on improving students' perceptions of technology use, and the students in the experimental group were more successful and had higher levels of motivation than the students in the control group. It was also revealed that the students had positive thoughts about the implementation of flipped classroom method