Social Sciences and Education Research Review (Jul 2019)
A REVIEW OF STUDIES ON MATHEMATICAL THINKING IN TURKEY
Abstract
This study aims at reviewing the tendencies of the studies on mathematics education in Turkey with particular regard to mathematical thinking. In this respect, the theses in the National Center for Theses and Dissertations and the journals published online at the DergiPark (The most comprehensive collection of academic journals in Turkey) portal were searched and 48 studies on mathematical thinking were found. In this qualitative study, the studies reviewed were analyzed descriptively. In the light of the findings obtained, it is found that there are 23 articles, 12 master’s theses and 13 doctoral theses. It is also found that while these studies were limited in number until 2010, the number has increased after 2010. When the studies are examined regarding their methodology, it is seen that qualitative researches are in majority; however, there are also quantitative and mixed studies. In addition to this finding, it is also observed that generally open-ended questions, interviews, observations and video recordings are used in qualitative studies, and content analysis is preferred. In the quantitative studies, on the other hand, it is seen that scales are generally preferred as data collection tools. In addition, it is observed that the researchers generally selected middle school students and elementary pre-service mathematics teachers as their sample. The sample size is mostly between 11 and 30 and generally, 201 to 300 samples are determined. According to the results obtained, it is seen that mathematical thinking has become a popular subject recently. Therefore, it is thought that conducting more studies on mathematical thinking and preferring different sample groups would be beneficial for improving mathematics education.
