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A problem is a situation, in which a person tries to find a solution and does not exactly know how but still tries to solve it. One of the important elements of problem solving skills that individuals should have is to choose the appropriate strategy in the solution of the problems, which is important in terms of achieving success in solving problems. The research question of the study is "what are the levels of sixth and seventh grade students' problem solving skills?" The aim of this study was to investigate the problem solving and problem-solving strategies levels of secondary school students. The study was carried out through method with a total of 72 students from the two provinces in the Black Sea region of Turkey selected by random in the second term of the 2014-2015 academic year.In this qualitative research for the case study, content analysis was applied. The study group consists of 50 students in Samsun province and 22 students in Sinop province in the Blacksea region, 35 of the students are females, whereas 37 of them are male students. The methodology of the study is case study method, which is in accordance with the nature of qualitative research. In this qualitative research for the case study, content analysis was applied in order to evaluate the data. In the study, five creative problems developed by Smith, which were adapted into Turkish by the researchers, were used as the data collection tools. The problems applied were evaluated according to Polya's stage of problem solving. The problems were evaluated according to stages such as understanding the problem, choosing a strategy, applying the chosen strategy, and evaluating the solution. While examining students' problem solving papers, it was observed that they were more successful at solving problems, with which they came across before or are similar to the ones they had solved. It was observed that majority of the students had difficulty in solving non-routine problems. It is believed that this results from the fact that mostly routine problems are discussed and solved in the curricula.

ABSTRACT

Abstract. The aim of the study is to develop an achievement test that can be used to measure the achievement status of elementary school 4th grader students in terms of their fractions learning in mathematics courses. Examining the literature, it is visible that there are 8 development stages of the achievement test.. ITEMAN 3.5 package software was employed to analyze the validity and reliability of the test. Statistical analysis of the test reveals that KR-20 Internal Consistency and KR-21 Internal Consistency are 0.90. This value indicates that the consistency of the test is high. The average discrimination of the test is 0.80, which indicates that the test is highly distinctive among students. The average strength of the test has been calculated as 0.67. Therefore, it has been determined that the test should be both easy and distinctive when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of the teaching method. The result of the analysis suggest that when consistency and distinctiveness values are considered, the developed test is not only easy to use but also highly distinctive. Finally, it has been discovered that the academic achievement test for fraction teaching is valid and reliable.

Activities to improve students' problem-solving skills are not enough in the information age. Instead, there is a trend towards modern methods ensuring opportunity to multi-dimensional thinking. Due to this trend, students must be a creative problem solver that enables high-level thinking. It is expected that student creativity will be developed through creative problem-solving activities. We carried out the study by sampling method with a total of 72 students from the two provinces in the Black Sea region of Turkey selected by random. In the study, we used the one creative problems developed by Price (2006) as data collecting tools. In analysing the data, the solutions of applied problems were investigated regardful of Mumford et al. (1991) 's creative problem solving steps. Content analysis of qualitative research methods was conducted in the research. The data obtained were submitted to the views of two experts to achieve reliability and validity of the study and correspondence percentage was calculated. As a result of the findings, we have found out that the middle school students have some difficulties as they have faced with creative problems for the first time. We have determined that students have difficulties in the configuration step of the problems, in the steps of choosing categories and encoding information.