Investigation of teacher and student views on skill-based mathematics questions

This study was conducted to determine the views of high school mathematics teachers and high school students on skill-based mathematics questions. The research is a Q method research. Within the scope of the research, interviews were conducted with 20 high school mathematics teachers and 20 high school students who volunteered to participate in the research. Participants' opinions were obtained by using Q questions prepared in line with expert opinions. Following the one-on-one Q practices with the participants, open-ended questions related to skill-based questions were asked to the participants during the process in order to examine the participant views on skill-based questions in more depth. The Q items were analyzed using factor analysis and the open-ended questions were analyzed using descriptive analysis. According to the results obtained from the teacher interviews, it was seen that most of the teachers agreed that skills-based mathematics questions should be comprehensible in terms of grammar and meaning, that they are difficult for students, and that they are difficult to use in lessons because they are long. In addition, teachers stated that skills-based mathematics questions reduce students' interest in mathematics and that they rarely use these questions in their lessons. According to the results obtained from the student interviews, most of the students stated that skills-based mathematics questions should be understandable in terms of grammar and meaning, these questions are long and complex, skills-based mathematics questions are not interesting and do not increase their interest in mathematics. In addition, many students stated that skills-based mathematics questions require more thinking than knowledge-based mathematics questions and that these questions develop students' problem solving and critical thinking skills related to real life.