Expectations, observations and opinions of secondary and high school mathematics teachers about the preparation levels of 5th and 9th grade students

At primary school level, students of secondary school mathematics teachers; It is a common situation for high school mathematics teachers to comment and criticize the quality of the education they receive at the secondary school level. In this study, it was aimed to determine the expectations, opinions and observations of the 5th and 9th grade teachers about the readiness levels of the students who come to their classes from a lower level. Comparative analyzes of the data obtained from the participating 5th and 9th grade teachers were carried out. The participants of the study consisted of ten 5th grade and eight 9th grade mathematics teachers working in the provinces of Bilecik, Ankara and Eskişehir. Participation in the study is on a voluntary basis. Attention was paid to the fact that the participants, who were formed with easily accessible purposeful sampling, had at least five years of mathematics teaching experience in schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education. In this study, which was carried out using the basic qualitative research design, a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. The interviews were recorded and analyzed. The analyzes were analyzed with the document analysis method. As a result of the research, the main reasons affecting the readiness in mathematics in the transition between levels, negative attitude towards the course, lack of knowledge brought from the lower level, socioeconomic level of the family, exams made in the transition to the new level, the existence of age difference between students in the same class were stated by the teachers.