The Effect of Problem Posing-Based Mathematics Teaching on Fourth Grade Students' Problem Solving Skills and Metacognitive Awareness Levels

We encounter math at every stage of life and it has an unavoidable place for us. In this case, it is considered important to design different learning environments to learn math instead of avoiding it. The present study aims to investigate the effect of problem posing-based mathematics teaching on 4th-grade students' problem solving skills and metacognitive awareness levels. This study is a quasi-experimental study designed with the pretest-posttest control group experimental pattern. The study sample consisted of 53 fourth grade students, 26 of whom were in the experimental group and 27 in the control group. “Problem Solving Skills Test” and “Metacognitive Awareness Scale” were used to determine students' problem solving skills and metacognitive awareness levels. Independent samples t-test for intergroup comparisons and dependent samples t-test for intragroup comparisons were used in data analysis. According to the results of the data analysis, the problem posing-based teaching method applied to the experimental group was more effective in improving students' problem solving skills than the traditional mathematics teaching applied to the control group. In addition, the method applied to the experimental group was found to be effective in improving students' intragroup problem solving skills while the method applied to the control group students based on the existing curriculum was not able to be effective in improving those students' problem solving skills. When the metacognitive awareness levels of groups were examined, it was concluded that the method applied to the experimental group was not effective in improving students' metacognitive awareness compared to the method applied in the control group. Moreover, when the intragroup results were examined, it was seen that the problem posing-based teaching did not cause a significant difference in improving students' awareness though the posttest scores of the experimental group increased in comparision to its pretest scores. Similarly, no significant difference was observed in students' awareness in the lessons conducted according to the existing curriculum when the the pretest and posttest scores of the control group were compared.

Keywords

Mathematics Education, Primary School, Problem Posing-Based Mathematics Teaching, Problem Solving Skill, Metacognitive Awareness