Sixth graders' strategic flexibility in mathematical problem solving and views of teachers' on this subject

The aim of this study is to determine the strategic flexibility of 6th grade students in solving non-routine problems, to observe the effect of experimental instruction on strategy flexibility, as well as to determine the predictions and opinions of middle school mathematics teachers about how much students have strategic flexibility. In the study, experimental model with pre-test and post-test control group was used. In the experimental part; In the second semester of 2016-2017 academic year, a total of 204 sixth grade students study in a secondary school in Bursa. A pre-test with 10 unusual problems requiring the use of different strategies was applied to the students. Before the pre-test, it was tested on 7th grade students at the same school to determine suitability for the participants. This test was used to gain a general understanding of the participants' current strategy use and strategic flexibility. Then, an experimental and control group consisting of 38 students were formed. The experimental group was then trained for 16 lessons focusing on strategic flexibility in problem solving. At the end of the experimental training, a posttest similar to the pre-test was applied to all students who participated in the study. In addition, it has been tried to determine whether experimental training improves strategic flexibility within the data obtained from the post-test. In the opinions of teachers; semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 mathematics teachers working in different schools and their students' predictions and opinions about their strategic flexibility were obtained. Content analysis was used to evaluate the opinions. This part of the study is to see the similarities or differences between teachers 'opinions about flexibility and students' level of flexibility. According to the findings; It was concluded that the majority of students had a weak level of strategic flexibility in problem solving, but the education positively affected the students' strategic flexibility in problem solving. According to the views of teachers; It was concluded that most of the teachers did not give enough importance to strategic flexibility, the students were reluctant and prejudiced about this issue, but flexible problem solvers could be raised with the changes to be made.