The effect of the concept of variable in algebra teaching from shape symbols to letter representation on students' achievement and attitude

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the transition from shape variables to letter variables on mathematics achievement and attitudes of 6th grade students who encounter the concept of "variable" for the first time with the learning area of algebra, which is a sub-learning area of maths. The study was carried out in village public schools that continued face-to-face education due to the pandemic in the 2020-2021 academic year. The research was carried out with 6th graders, a public secondary school as the Experimental Group (DG) and another public secondary school as the Control Group (KG) in Rize. 30 students, 15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group, constitute the sample of the research. The study was carried out using a quasi-experimental method with a pre-test post-test equalized control group. In this study, which was conducted to examine the effect of the concept of variable using shape symbols on the success of students, the "Algebraic Expressions Achievement Test (CIBT)" developed by Oduncu (2020) in his master's thesis to collect data and Karaca and Yalçınkaya (2018) to look at their attitudes. The developed "Algebra Attitude Scale (CTS)" scale was added to the study with permission. The data gathered from these measurement tools were evaluated using statistical analysis methods. With the analysis of the data collection tools, it was investigated whether there was a statistically important change between the pre-test and post-test results of the groups in terms of achievement and attitudes. The findings of the study shows that it was determined that the mathematics achievement and attitude of the experimental group, which was switched to shapes and letter variables, increased positively compared to the mathematics achievement and attitude of the control group teaching with traditional teaching methods. As a result of the research, numerous suggestions were made to the studies and researchers related to the movement. Key Words: Teaching Algebra, The Concept of Variables, Letter Symbols, Algebraic Expressions