The relationship between academic success and solving skills of real-life problems of 8th grade students

Problem-solving has an important place in raising the human model needed in today's era. The use of problems designed in accordance with the purpose provides benefits in achieving the goals set in mathematics lessons. In our country, associating academic achievement with central exam results in general leaves mathematics lessons under the influence of these exam models. In the 2017-2018 academic year, the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) applied the 8th grade students' High School Extrance Exam (HSEE) for the first time by changing the exam model used in transition from basic education to secondary education. With this study, the relationship between the achievements of 8th grade students to solve real life problems and their academic achievements was aimed to be studied. In the study, at the end of the second term of 2017-2018 academic year, an open-ended problem test with 18 questions consisting of 9 real life problems and 9 routine problems was applied to a total of 166 students studying in the 8th grade in Alanya district of Antalya province. The data were evaluated in SPSS program by independent groups t-test and variance analysis. As a result of the study; It has been observed that students who are successful in solving real life problems are more successful students in HSEE, routine problems test, HSEE math test and school math lessons.