Examination of the mathematical competence levels of the questions used by middle school mathematics teachers

The purpose of study was to examine the questions used by middle school mathematics teachers in the lesson regarding each of the sub-learning areas in the 8th grade mathematics curriculum in terms of mathematical competencies (Turner, Blum & Niss, 2015). The data of the study consisted of the questions that the teachers used in the lesson regarding the sub-learning areas that they specified in the interview forms and the interviews with the teachers. 30 middle school mathematics teachers working in Osmaniye province participated in the study. The questions selected and used by 30 teachers were examined and then semi-meeting interviews were conducted with 9 teachers. The questions were examined in terms of communication, strategy development, mathematization, representation, using symbols, operations and formal language, and reasoning and discussion competence and the level levels of these questions were determined. The findings of the study showed that, according to the item analysis scheme in which each competency is leveled at 0, 1, 2 and 3 levels, it was determined that the competency levels of the questions used by the elementary mathematics teachers in the course of the sub-learning domains were generally at the 0th and 1st level. Findings indicated that teachers considered the grade levels of the students while determining the question levels and they preferred high level questions very rare. It could be concluded that it is important for mathematics teaching that a teacher who is aware of the proficiency levels of the questions she/he uses in the lesson allows students to do mathematics by using questions appropriate to the level of the student in the lesson.