An examination of elementary mathematics teachers' views on the 7th grade mathematics curriculum updated in 2018

The aim of this research is to examine the views of elementary mathematics teachers regarding the 7th grade mathematics curriculum updated in 2018. In this qualitative research, phenomenology was used The participants, who were chosen by the criterion sampling method, which is one of the purposeful sampling methods, were 24 elementary mathematics teachers who had completed the elementary mathematics teaching undergraduate program and attained their master's and/or doctoral degrees in curriculum and instruction or mathematics education. They were teaching in middle schools in Afyonkarahisar or its districts. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with elementary mathematics teachers. Interview data were supported with document analysis. The 7th grade mathematics curriculum updated in 2018 provided data for document analysis. The obtained interview data were subjected to content analysis, and the data obtained from document analysis were subjected to descriptive analysis. The findings of the research generated three themes: the official curriculum, the operational curriculum, and the revisions needed to be made in the curriculum. It has been found that elementary mathematics teachers disagree about the appropriateness of the curriculum for recent changes and developments, its impact on achieving general and specific goals, its impact on developing competencies, and they believe that the curriculum is ineffective in achieving the goal of raising the individual profile and in developing root values. It has been discovered that elementary mathematics teachers believe that the learning outcomes are intensive and their justifications are not sufficient, despite the fact that they are clear, implementable, and in line with the learner's needs. According to elementary mathematics teachers, the structure of the curriculum content is appropriate, but the content is still dense. Although it has been simplified, it should be simplified even further; there is no connection between the learning areas. The subject of "views of objects from different sides" in the field of geometry and measurement learning area should be removed. Elementary mathematics teachers stated that the teaching-learning process depends on learner characteristics, how the teacher implements the curriculum, the amount of time allotted for the mathematics lesson, the content of the curriculum, and the pressure that national exams put on teachers. According to elementary mathematics teachers, it has been understood that measurement and assessment are mostly product- and test-oriented, individual differences are not taken into account, paper-pencil tests are given to all students, and measurement and assessment are only done regarding cognitive learning outcomes. It was found that elementary mathematics teachers have issues with the duration, content, and learner. According to the content of the seventh-grade mathematics lesson, elementary mathematics teachers did not find the time allotted for it to be adequate. Elementary mathematics teachers stated that there is a disconnection between the subjects in the 7th grade mathematics curriculum, that students struggle to make transition between subjects, that geometry should be separated from the curriculum content, that students struggle due to the intensity of the new and abstract subjects they encounter in the 7th grade, and that they do not have time to associate the subjects with daily life and do activities due to the intensive content. Elementary mathematics teachers stated that they had problems due to the low readiness level of the students as they do not do the homework they should do and study much. It has been determined that elementary mathematics teachers want to change the length of the lesson, the learning outcomes and content of the curriculum, and the teaching-learning process. Elementary mathematics teachers demanded that the duration of the lesson should be increased, the learning outcomes related to the subject of "views of objects from different sides" should be included in the 6th grade mathematics curriculum, or be addressed before the end of the semester, or even completely removed from the curriculum, and that the models used for multiplication and division of integers should be removed from the justifications of learning outcomes. The content of the 7th grade mathematics curriculum should be simplified and mitigated, transferring some subjects to other grade levels, particularly to the 6th grade, the subject of "problems" should be elaborated more, geometry should be replaced with algebra, geometry should be started with teaching triangles rather than quadrilaterals, and data analysis should be completely removed from the curriculum. Basic skills specific to learning mathematics should be added to the teaching-learning process, and teachers should be given more flexibility and freedom in implementing the curriculum.