The i̇nvestigation of the development of students' mathematical literacy who are educated by mathematic teachers trained about mathematical literacy

Even though mathematics curricula have undergone fundamental changes, it is clear that mathematical literacy is not sufficiently covered in the teaching process. Many mathematics teachers rarely establish a relationship between everyday life and mathematics. Teachers are advised to use the real-life context problems in the teaching process and make practices that contribute to the development of mathematical literacy skills by taking into consideration the vital benefits of mathematical literacy. This reveals the need for the samples of mathematical literacy problems and the need to determine where, when, and how these problems are to be used in teaching. Furthermore, when this need is met, it is also crucially important to how to measure the value of the practices and the contribution of these practices to the improvement of the students' achievement level of mathematical literacy. Starting from this point of view, in this thesis, firstly, 28 mathematics teachers were given training of posing and solving mathematical literacy problems (30 hours). Four teachers were identified out of the 28 teachers and mathematical literacy problems were solved with the five, six, seven and eighth grade students in the classrooms of these teachers during one semester. The quantitative dimension of this thesis based on nested experimental mixed design was designed and implemented as a quasi-experimental design with a non-equalized control group, and the quantitative dimension as a holistic multiple case study. The experimental group of the study group consisted of 105 students, 27 students the fifth grade, 28, sixth grade, 25, seventh grade and 25, eighth grade students, and the control group consisted of 105 different students. Within the scope of the thesis, we aimed to establish the extent the teachers tried to reflect the education they received onto their classes, effects of the education the students received on their mathematical literacy achievement levels, the permanence of this effect, the error sources of the students in the process of solving the mathematical literacy problems and the effects of the application on the in-class student engagement. The data were collected through participant observation (the researcher), diaries (all students), interviews (with 23 students and the teachers), focus group interviews (all the classes involved) and pre and posttests. A total of 98 class-hours of class observations were made. Consequently in the study, it was found that students' mathematical literacy accomplishment levels increased and their classroom participation performance was positively affected. It was observed that this positive effect was also reflected in the assessments of the students. Even though it was not included in the thesis plan, the positive responses of families to the practice were informally witnessed. From the data collected through the student diaries, the reasons of students for considering a problem worthwhile to solve, their reasons for not solving them, the places where mathematics was used in real life and the differences of mathematical literacy problems from other problems were identified. Additionally, the change in the students' assessments on mathematical literacy problems within the process was also revealed. Furthermore, the errors sources experienced in the problem solving process of mathematical literacy were also examined. Accordingly, it was revealed that the major difficulty was experienced in understanding the problem. In addition, it was observed that students had difficulties in the processes of making mathematical inferences, developing a mathematical suggestion, creating the mathematical model of the problem, understanding the equivalent mathematical language in real life and understanding the mathematical equivalent of the vital situation. Researchers and educators are recommended to take into account these results obtained in their educational interventions. Within the scope of this thesis, a framework named as the "Stages of the Mathematical Literacy Problem Solving Process" was adapted from the relevant literature and proposed for use in future studies as well. The mathematical literacy problems are partly differentiated from the traditional problems as they are contextual and play a role in removing the gap between the school mathematics and real life. In the present study, the framework offered for the solution of mathematical literacy problems is an innovation proposed by this thesis.