The efects of the mathematics literarcy education on academic success and epistemological belief in 7th grade students

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of mathematics literacy education on students' epistemological belief level. In the research, mixed pattern including both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools were used. The working group consists of 7th-grade students who studying in the second half of the 2018-2019 academic year at a secondary school in Ankara Altındağ district. The case study was carried out by creating an experimental group with 24 people and a control group of 24 people from two randomly selected classes. In the study, mathematics literacy education were provided in the mathematical applications lesson to the experimental group for 2 hours a week for total of 8 weeks and academic achievements and epistemological belief development were measured. The data in the study were collected with the "Mathematical Literacy (ML) Achievement Test" which was developed by the researcher, the "Mathematics Oriented Epistemological Belief Scale (MOEBS)" developed by İlhan and Çetin (2013), and student diaries. Considering the results of the study, the literacy success level of students increased significantly with mathematics literacy education whereas no significant change was found in epistemological beliefs. In addition, when the relationship between mathematical literacy and epistemological beliefs were examined, after the Spearman correlation analysis, a moderate positive relationship was found between the belief that learning depends on effort sub-dimension and mathematics literacy success besides no relationship was found with other sub-dimensions. With the provided education, it has been observed that students developed an understanding that there may not be a "single truth in mathematics", and their multi-faceted thinking abilities have developed by solving assumptions over time whereas affective changes like "mathematics as a more enjoyable and feasible lesson" were observed.