The purpose of this study was to investigate the teaching images of prospective teachers for the multiplication of fractions in lesson plays. It was conducted at a public university in the southern region of Turkey and included 23 third-year prospective teachers (21 females and 2 males) enrolled in a mathematics teacher education program. A lesson play was used as a data collection tool, and 23 lesson plays were prepared by prospective teachers. The analysis of the data resulted in the classification of the lesson plays into three teaching images based on the presentation of mathematical ideas throughout the scenarios. This study found that prospective teachers struggle with teaching multiplication of fractions due to their lack of content knowledge. This deficiency resulted in rule-based explanations, random computational errors, and inappropriate tasks and models. Prospective teachers also exhibited difficulty in anticipating actual-like students’ responses and constructing appropriate dialogues. These findings emphasize the need to provide more comprehensive mathematics content knowledge to prospective teachers to support their teaching the multiplication of fractions more effectively. Further research is needed to investigate how to support prospective teachers in developing their teaching images and strategies for teaching mathematics.
Mathematical modeling plays a crucial role for bridging the gap between mathematics and real-life contexts. The theory of Mathematical Working Spaces (MWS) provides a suitable framework for analyzing the mathematical modeling process by incorporating both epistemological and cognitive dimensions of mathematical work. This study investigates the mathematical work carried out by pre-service elementary mathematics teachers as they engage with modeling-based mathematical tasks, interpreted the lens of MWS. Employing a qualitative case study design, the research involved 15 pre-service teachers selected through criterion sampling. Data were collected via video recordings and written documents capturing the participants’ solution processes, which were guided by exploratory questions. The data were analyzed descriptively, focusing on the components of the MWS framework. The findings reveal that pre-service teachers frequently employed components of the epistemological plane during the problem comprehension and simplification stages of the modeling cycle. The mathematization stage predominantly took place within the semiotic-instrumental plane, while the ‘working mathematically’ stage involved actions spanning across multiple planes. Future research may explore the instructional practices of pre-service teachers as they implement mathematical modeling in classroom environment, guided by the principles of MWS theory.
The purpose of the present research was to find the response to the research question, ‘What is the nature of middle school students’ reasonings about multiple response nature of scientific questions through an SSI-based education?’. We uncovered the development of these reasonings through an SSI-based education where the students encountered context-based instructional activities such as open-ended inquiries, experiments, moral argumentations. For this purpose, we uncovered 15 5th grade and 24 8th grade students’ reasonings about the multiple response nature of scientific questions using specifically designed Vignettes. In the data analysis, we thematically grouped the students’ reasonings using content analysis procedures. The results showed that students used either phantasy-based or data-based reasoning about the multiple response nature of scientific questions. In addition, we noticed that students used a range of sub-reasoning types (e.g., problematic induction, excessive imagination, best argument epistemology, conditional relativity, etc.) under these two main reasonings. These reasoning types could be used as a rubric for understanding students’ perspectives regarding NOS within SSI contexts.
Today, reading comprehension in science education is seen as an important skill for achieving international science education goals. In this context, it becomes more important to examine pre-service science teachers' competencies and views on this issue. This study aims to examine pre-service science teachers' views on the importance of scientific texts and reading comprehension in science education. Case study, one of the qualitative research method designs, was used in the study. The opinions of pre-service science teachers about scientific texts and reading comprehension were obtained through an opinion form consisting of open-ended questions. After the opinions were collected, a seminar was given to the pre-service teachers about the strategies used in the evaluation of scientific texts and reading comprehension. At the end of this seminar, the pre-service teachers were asked to design an activity for middle school students that included a scientific text and reading comprehension questions based on the text. After the activity design, the opinions of 9 pre-service teachers who volunteered and represented a range of achievement levels in activity design were collected again using a detailed opinion form. According to the results of the study, pre-service science teachers hold the view that reading comprehension in science education provides cognitive development, improves conceptual understanding and increases the retention of knowledge. Pre-service science teachers have positive attitudes toward the importance of reading comprehension in science education; they believe that scientific texts used for this purpose should be simple, understandable, supported by visuals, and designed to include assessment activities.
This study aims to examine the effect of 30 hours of basic level STEM in-service training on teachers' thoughts about STEM education, using quantitative and qualitative methods. In the study designed using a mixed methods approach, an overlapping embedded design was used. For the quantitative part of the study, a one-group pretest-posttest model was adopted; data were collected with the 15-item "Scale of Teachers' Opinions on STEM Education" developed by Çevik (2017). In the qualitative methods, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 teachers, and the data were analyzed thematically using NVivo. The study group consisted of 16 teachers from pre-school (43.75%), primary classroom (18.75%), science (12.25%), technology design (12,25%), information technologies (6.25%), and mathematics (6.25%) fields. The findings reveal that there is a prevailing perception that STEM education contributes to the development of students’ analytical thinking, problem-solving, and manual skills. In addition, the view that STEM education increases student motivation and relates to daily life became more prominent after the training. Teachers’ negative opinions regarding STEM education as requiring a high level of materials and being time-consuming decreased. As a result, it was revealed that STEM education contributed significantly to teachers' professional development and students' academic achievement. However, in order to implement this education effectively, teachers need more support and training. These findings constitute an important basis for the dissemination of STEM education and making teachers competent in this field.
The aim of this study is to determine the artificial intelligence literacy and mathematics literacy self-efficacy perceptions of preservice elementary mathematics teachers and to explore the relationship between their perceptions of these two types of literacy. For this purpose, a descriptive and correlational survey model was used. The participants of the research consisted of 203 preservice elementary mathematics teachers studying in the elementary mathematics education program at the Faculty of Education in public universities in Denizli, Edirne, and İzmir during the 2024-2025 academic year. The data collection tools used included the ‘Participant Information Form,’ the ‘Artificial Intelligence Literacy Scale,’ and the ‘Mathematics Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale.’ Descriptive and correlational statistical techniques were employed for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the preservice teachers' perceptions of artificial intelligence literacy were moderate, while their perceptions of mathematics literacy self-efficacy were at a high level. There was a significant and linear relationship between artificial intelligence literacy and mathematics literacy self-efficacy perceptions, with artificial intelligence literacy perceptions explaining 39.1% of the variance in mathematics literacy self-efficacy perceptions. Additionally, the findings suggest that awareness and ethical perceptions in artificial intelligence literacy moderately enhance mathematics literacy self-efficacy perceptions.
The present study investigated the impact of teaching the greenhouse effect with system dynamics tools to eighth-grade middle school students enrolled in an environmental education and climate change course on various variables. The study employed a quasi-experimental design based on a pretest-posttest model with experimental and control groups. The study sample consisted of 194 students enrolled in an environmental education and climate change course at a public school in Malatya. Three data collection tools were used to address the research questions: the Cause-and-Effect Relationship Scale, the Constructivist Learning Environment Scale, and the Global Warming Attitude Scale. The findings indicated that system dynamics tools significantly enhanced students' understanding of cause-and-effect relationships and their perception of constructivist learning environments. While no statistically significant between-group difference was found for global warming attitudes post-intervention, the experimental group showed substantial improvement in attitude scores, demonstrating the potential of system dynamics tools in fostering both cognitive and affective learning outcomes in environmental education. These results suggest that incorporating system dynamics approaches into science curricula could enhance students’ systems thinking capabilities and create more engaging learning environments for complex environmental topics, though longer intervention periods may be needed to achieve sustained attitudinal changes.
The aim of this study is to evaluate national and international studies on sustainable environmental education (SEE) between 2019 and 2023 using thematic analysis method. In this context, ERIC, EBSCO, ProQuest, Springer, Wiley Online Library, Science Direct, Sage, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, Scopus, ULAKBIM and Council of Higher Education National Thesis Center databases were examined. The study included 44 theses and 94 articles. The studies were analyzed by considering parameters such as year of publication, type of study, purpose, discipline, method, design, sampling, participants, data collection and analysis methods, conclusions and recommendations. It was observed that the majority of the studies were published in 2023 and were of article type. The studies generally aim to examine the effects of educational intervention on attitudes, motivation, behavior and achievement and are concentrated in the field of science. It was determined that purposeful sampling and undergraduate students were mostly studied, qualitative method and case study were preferred. A questionnaire was used for data collection, and t-test, content analysis, and thematic analysis were used for data analysis. The results include findings on the views, awareness and experiences of the participants. In the recommendations, it is emphasized that the content of the course, curriculum and teaching program should be improved and enriched.
This study examined the metacognitive awareness levels of gifted students and their mental models and mental structures in electrochemistry. The phenomenology research design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The study group consisted of eight gifted students studying in 12th grade. The criterion sampling, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used to determine the study group. Metacognitive Awareness Test, Electrochemistry Concept Test, and Interview Form on Electrochemistry Concepts were used as data collection tools in the study. The data obtained from the interview forms were analyzed using descriptive analysis, while the awareness and concept test data were subjected to absolute evaluation. The results indicated that the students' mental models were compatible with the scientific and synthesis models. Regarding the concepts, the mental structures showing the least compatibility with the scientific model were images, whereas those showing the most compatibility were intellectual skills. Furthermore, gifted students with high metacognitive awareness had mental models closer to scientific models, and their average scores on the electrochemistry concept test were higher.
Viruses have caused and continue to cause many epidemics for centuries. During these epidemics, there are many examples that are misunderstood and applied among the public. People need to recognise these entities and take appropriate measures. In the teaching process in Türkiye, students learn about the virus for the first time in the 9th grade biology course. With this study, it is aimed to develop a test that can be used to determine the students’ knowledge level about the virus subject. It is a descriptive survey study in which data related to variables are collected. 99 students studying in the 9th grade of a state high school in Karesi district of Balıkesir city participated in the pilot application on voluntary basis. The data obtained were analysed with item difficulty and item discrimination indices from classical item statistics. The finalised Virus Knowledge Test (VBT) was administered to 9th grade 165 students from different randomly selected two state high schools in Karesi. The Cronbach α reliability coefficient for the whole VBT was found to be 0.66. The fact that it is the first virus knowledge test with reliability and validity in the literature on the virus subject reveals the originality of the study.
This work focuses on investigating the influence levels of Arduino and Algodoo based mechanics teaching activities on academic achievement. The research was carried out based on a pre-test post-test quasi-experimental method with two experimental groups totally consisting of 61 pre-service science teachers studying at a state university. Specifically, Arduino based STEM and Algodoo based education materials are carefully developed on the units of vectors, kinematics, dynamics, and work-energy in accordance with teaching objectives. The influences of the teaching materials on achievement are measured by Mechanics Achievement Scale. The findings demonstrate that Arduino based education has improved the achievement by 28.21% and Algodoo based teaching has improved by 28.83%, both influencing significantly. It was also revealed that simplicity of the activities and prior knowledge of the groups related with experimental processes were factors that increased the effectiveness of the applications.
With the widespread use of mobile technology in education, individual learning came to the fore, which required the student to organize his/her work in the best way, that is, to develop self-regulation skills. This study examined the relationship between high school students' perceived self-regulation skills and mobile technology acceptance levels in mathematics learning. In addition, the study also examined students' self-regulation skills and mobile technology acceptance levels in mathematics learning in terms of gender, grade level and academic achievement averages. The research included students studying at a high school determined by the appropriate sampling method and evaluated the data of 752 students. The study used Student Information Form, Perceived Self-Regulation Scale and Mobile Technology Acceptance Scale in Mathematics Learning as data collection tools. The study also employed descriptive and relational screening methods. According to the research, a low positive correlation existed between high school students' perceived self-regulation skills and their mobile technology acceptance levels for learning mathematics. In addition, the perceived self-regulation skills of the students were above the average; and their mobile technology acceptance levels in learning mathematics were close to the average.
Utilizing interdisciplinary connections in teaching mathematics increases the quality of teaching and makes learning more effective and permanent. In this study, the connection between children’s literature and mathematics was discussed and this connection was examined through problem posing. The relevant research was conducted with a case study design, which is one of the qualitative research methods. In this direction, 6-week tasks were carried out intermittently for prospective mathematics teachers regarding the connection between children’s literature and mathematics. As a result of these tasks, prospective mathematics teachers were asked to pose as many problems as they could using a visual in a book of children’s literature. 66 mathematical problems posed by 27 prospective mathematics teachers were evaluated descriptively with the problem posing evaluation criteria including the themes of “Content”, “Mathematical Connection” and “Creativity”, and the frequencies for the themes were presented in a table. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the connection between children’s literature and mathematics positively affected the mathematical connection skills and creativity of the prospective teachers. At the same time, it was observed that the number of problem-solving strategies used in the problems posed by the prospective teachers was high and the most preferred problem-solving strategy was mathematical reasoning.
Today’s learners simply resort to the Internet to research and meet their learning needs, especially videos. Most such resources are unsupervised and of poor quality. However, there is a lack of instruments in the literature to measure the instructional quality of such widely available videos. Moreover, cognitive aspects are frequently overlooked when judging such content. In this study, an instrument called multimedia principles rubric (MPR) was developed after consultation with experts and evaluated to fill this gap. MPR consists of 16 principles based on Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML) and has been fine-tuned through a literature review. Descriptive items of MPR are organized according to a 5-point Likert scale and produce an overall mean cognitive value score. MPR was tested by multiple raters on 90 sample physics videos that were selected through cluster sampling and found to have good interrater reliability. MPR can assist its users, especially teachers, in filtering videos in light of CTML rather than relying solely on statistical indicators such as video ratings or number of views. MPR is also beneficial for identifying gaps in educational content and recommending solutions for content producers to implement.
The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of the classroom climate created according to the ‘positive error climate framework programme’ on the error orientations of teachers and students in mathematics lessons. Intervention design based on mixed methods was used. The data were collected from four classes (two study and comparison classes) selected by purposive sampling, involving 145 students and 4 mathematics teachers. ‘Classroom Error Climate Scale’ (CECS), lesson observation form and notebook, semi-structured teacher and student interview form were used. At the end of the fifteen-week study, interviews were conducted with the teachers and students in the study groups. T-test results showed positive and significant change in the perceived classroom error climate in the study groups. Qualitative data analyses showed that the error orientations of the study group teachers and students were more positive than the comparison group. Teachers and students stated that positive error climate helps them to comprehend the correct information better, increases participation and self-confidence in the lesson and helps permanent learning.
This study aims to answer the questions: "Does the implementation of AI-generated STEM activities have an impact on students' levels of scientific creativity?" and "What are the students' views and experiences regarding AI- generated STEM activities?". The study group consists of 49 gifted 4th-grade students enrolled in a Science and Art Center in Bursa, Turkey during the 2023-2024 academic year. Utilizing a case study analysis, the research demonstrates that AI-generated STEM activities significantly enhance students' scientific creativity levels. Additionally, most students expressed positive views about the activities and stated that they developed their creativity, gained various skills and felt like engineers due to their involvement in design. The "Scientific Creativity Scale," adapted for use in Turkish context by Aktamış (2007), and a semi-structured interview form were employed in the research. This study highlights the potential of artificial intelligence in designing STEM activities and offers a new approach to develop students' scientific creative thinking skills.
This study aims to determine how the teaching process designed with mathematical modeling activities affects the mathematical modeling competencies of seventh grade middle school students. The embedded design, one of the mixed methods research designs, was adopted. The embedded design was adopted, one of the mixed methods research designs. The research participants consisted of 27 students studying at the seventh grade level of a middle school. During the 10-week implementation process, an opinion form consisting of open-ended questions and nine mathematical modeling activities developed by the researcher were used as data collection tools. Three of these activities were used for the pretest and posttest, and the remaining six were used in the implementation process. When analyzing quantitative data, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used. In the analysis of qualitative data, descriptive analysis was used. According to the results, during the implementation process, students showed the most improvement in understanding the problem and studying mathematically. In contrast, they showed the slightest improvement in the interpretation and verification stages. It is thought that it is essential to constitute environments where students can establish relationships with mathematics and to design mathematical modeling problems in these environments to attract students’ attention as much as possible.
The current research aimed to explore gifted students’ perceptions of the nature of science, creativity, metaphors related to the nature of science, and myths about the nature of science through image art. Image art allows students to depict their mental representations of concepts by drawing and making analogies. The study was conducted with 17 gifted students at a school for gifted students in Ankara Province during the 2023–2024 academic year. The research employed a case study design, one of the qualitative research methods. In the data collection process, gifted students were asked to draw “how the scientists construct scientific knowledge” based on image art. The primary data collection tool was “art sheets illustrating how scientists construct scientific knowledge,” created by the gifted students. Descriptive and content analysis techniques were applied to analyze the collected data. At the end of the study, the gifted students' representations of scientific inquiry and scientists were predominantly traditional. The inventiveness of their drawings was average. Also, they had different nature of science metaphors such as “Science is brain.” being the most frequented one. While the students exhibited some myths about the nature of science, they also demonstrated an understanding of certain aspects of it. The importance of the current research was to give an idea to researchers working on gifted students’ nature of science perspectives so that they would be able to construct proper teaching environments.
The Japanese multiplication method (JAMED) is defined as drawing diagonal lines from left to right, followed by crossing them with diagonal lines from right to left, and then counting the intersection points to determine the multiplication result. This study aimed to teach multiplication to third-grade students who struggled to learn the operation using traditional methods, by employing the JAMED method, and to evaluate the process. We utilized the technical/scientific/collaborative model, a type of action research, in this study. The research was conducted with four third-grade students who were unable to learn multiplication through traditional methods, in a primary school located in Hani district of Diyarbakir province. We collected data using several tools: the 3rd Grade Multiplication Success Test developed by the researchers, Pre- and Post-Implementation Teacher Interview Forms, Post-Implementation Student Interview Forms, Researcher Diary, Audio Recordings taken during the Teaching Process, Lesson-End Assessment Activity Sheets, and related Rubrics. For the analysis of the qualitative data obtained, we employed content analysis and descriptive analysis. The findings indicated that the JAMED method positively impacted the development of multiplication skills and the transformation of negative affective traits towards multiplication into positive ones. However, students faced difficulties with marking intersection points, counting dots, grouping, adding carry-over numbers, drawing diagonal lines, shifting digits, and transferring results obtained with JAMED to traditional methods. We also identified potential disadvantages of JAMED, such as overshadowing other subjects and time limitations.
This study examines the effect of argumentation-based teaching on pre-service teachers' conceptual understanding of transformation geometry. The mixed research design was used in this study. In the quantitative dimension of the study, a quasi-experimental design with pretest and post-test control groups was used, in which the existing classes were randomly assigned as experimental and control groups. The qualitative dimension of the research is a case study. The study participants consisted of 43 secondary school pre-service math teachers who studied in the third grade at the education faculty of a state university in Turkey and took the Analytical Geometry course in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. In line with the purpose of the study, the Transformation Geometry Achievement Test (TGAT) was used as a data collection tool, and interviews were conducted with pre-service teachers. As a result, it has been concluded that argumentation-based teaching positively affects pre-service teachers' academic achievements and conceptual understanding of transformation geometry. In line with this result, it can be said that examining the effects of this teaching practice on academic success and conceptual understanding in other areas of mathematics will contribute to the field.
