Skill-based mathematics questions: What do middle school mathematics teachers think and how do they implement?

Abstract

This study aims to investigate middle school mathematics teachers" opinions about PISA-like skill-based mathematics questions, ways of implementing these questions during their in-class practices, and needs for a professional support. Adopting a mixed-method approach, at first, we collected the qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with 10 middle school mathematics teachers. Later, a questionnaire was developed depending on the qualitative data, and by using a survey method we collected the quantitative data from 217 middle school mathematics teachers working in Istanbul. The qualitative and quantitative data show that teachers have positive ideas about the nature of the skill-based mathematics questions. The frequency of using these questions in mathematics classes increases by the eighth grade and teachers generally use these questions once a week. Teachers" ways of implementing these questions in mathematics classes appears generally as giving homework and checking, classroom discussion, and privately solving the questions coming from students. Although teachers" ways of implementing these questions have some differentiations according to school types, but this differentiation is not statistically significant. Most of the teachers use the questions released by Ministry of National Education (MoNE) monthly and they evaluate the quality of these questions as suitable. Teachers evaluate the mathematics textbooks served out by MoNE as insufficient in terms of the quantity of involving these questions. In addition, some criticism appeared about the quality of the questions involved in the supplementary resources released by private publishers. The study also revealed that most of the teachers need a professional development course about the skill-based questions such as writing quality questions and developing their problem solving skills. The usage of PISA-like, skill-based questions in high-stakes testing (e.g., high school entrance examination) have been affecting teachers" in-class practices, yet it is difficult to say that this effect is on the true way.

Evaluation of Skill-based Questions According to Science Education Teachers in Turkey

“…When the teachers' views on the most apparent skills development are (Kızkapan and Nacaroğlu, 2019). SBQ measures interpretation, reading comprehension, and analytical skills (Kertil et al, 2021). In the age of globalization and modernization, i.e.…”

“…After using SBQ, differences have occurred in the in-class activities. Teachers appear to be trying to implement a different practice (Kertil et al, 2021).…”

Fen bilimleri dersi beceri temelli sorulara (yeni nesil) yönelik kuramsal ve kavramsal çerçeve

“…rağmen beceri temelli soruların sınıflandırılmasına dair bir çerçeveye rastlanılmamıştır. Beceri temelli sorularla ilişkili çalışmalar incelendiğinde; Bloom taksonomisine göre sınıflama (Ergün, 2021;Sanca, Artun, Bakırcı , & Okur, 2021), kazanım ve beceri temelli soruların karşılaştırılması (Kolomuc & Karagölge, 2021), Türkçe veya Matematik sorularına ilişkin öğretmen görüşlerinin incelenmesi (Bayburtlu, 2021;Kertil, Gülbağcı Dede, & Ulusoy, 2021) öğrencilerin matematik alanında yeni nesil sorulara yönelik tutumlarına yönelik ölçek geliştirilmesi (Kılcan, 2021), öğrencilerde eleştirel düşünme becerilene etkisi (Arı, 2020), matematik öğretmenlerinin beceri temelli sorulara yönelik değerlendirmeleri (Karakeçe, 2021), beceri temelli Türkçe, Matematik ve Fen Bilimleri sorularına ilişkin öğretmen görüşleri (Erden, 2020) konularında çalışmalar bulunmaktadır.…”

Beceri Temelli Ortaokul Matematik Sorularının İncelenmesi

“…Sanca et al (2021) examined the compatibility of skills-based science questions within the cognitive domain-and knowledgetype dimension of the revised Bloom's taxonomy. Kertil et al (2021), on the other hand, investigated secondary school mathematics teachers' thoughts on PISA-type skills-based questions and how they were practiced in the classroom environment as well as teachers' professional development needs. The literature, to our best knowledge, also revealed no study in which skills-based middle school mathematics questions were examined within the framework of a specific problem classification.…”