Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education

378-407

Authors: Emre Ev Çimen, Şafak Yıldız

The purpose of this study is to determine how much and what type of problem posing activities are included in the secondary school mathematics textbooks. In the study, secondary school mathematics textbooks of 2016-2017 academic year presented in the internet environment by the Training and Education Board were analyzed. A total of six mathematics books were analyzed in the research; two of them published by National Education Ministry and four of them published by private publishers. The books were evaluated in terms of the extent and types of problem posing activities included. As the results of the research, it was seen that there were limited number and variety of problem posing activities in all the books except the 8th grade textbook published by a private publisher. Furthermore, in the books analyzed, it was found that there was no balanced distribution of problem posing activities in the sub-learning areas and that there was not a book including all types of problem posing activities that cover all of the learning areas. Based on these results, to be able to in accordance with the purpose of the curriculum, it is suggested that secondary school mathematics textbooks should include more and diverse problem posing activities in the manner that will cover the learning areas in a balanced way. It was also found that there was no balanced distribution of problem posing activities in the lower learning areas, and no publishing house where all of the problem-setting types are used. In a similar vein, it was seen that there were no publishing houses that provided problem-setting activities for the entire learning area. In the study, textbooks were suggested to provide problem-setting activities more appropriately in accordance with the purpose of the curriculum, and to diversify problem-building activities.

438-458

Authors: Meriç Özgeldi, Aslıhan Osmanoğlu

In recent years, it has been drawn attention to the real life connections with mathematics as an important topic. Although the majority of the studies in the literature point that building the real life connection is vital, only some of them examine how and why teachers and prospective teachers build this connection. The participants of this study were the third-year prospective mathematics teachers who were studying in the department of mathematics teaching at a medium-sized state university and who take the Special Teaching Methods-II course in spring 2015-2016. 57 prospective secondary mathematics teachers were asked to establish real life connections in the direction of objectives from the teaching program, and to explain their reasons. The codes obtained from the study of Gainsburg (2008) and Lee (2012) were used for the data analysis. The findings indicated that prospective teachers were able to make explicit connections between mathematics and real life, understand the relation of mathematics to real life, and appreciate the use of building connections for the students.

481-512

Authors: Ebru Albayrak Özer, Mübin Kıyıcı

The aim of the research is to examine the relationship between students’ personality types (extraversion, introversion, openness to experience and closeness to experience) and their preference of various Web 2.0 tools to describe how these tools can be utilized in educational settings. Specifically, the study investigates which of the Web 2.0 tools are preferred and best meet the need of the different personality types. The participants included 22 students who were in their third year in the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies of the Sakarya University during the semester of Fall 2014. Five of these students were introvert, five were extrovert, six of them were open to experience and six were closed to experience. These students were selected with the purposive sampling method out of 30 students who were subjected to the Adjective-Based Personality Test. According to the results, students’ preferences of using social media differed by their personality types. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were the most popular tools among students. Results from the study also indicate that it is critical to utilize the most preferable and practical web 2.0 tools so that students with different personality traits could adapt to the class. Furthermore, measures need to be taken to prevent possible negative consequences of using these tools.