An investigation of the basic mathematics curriculum interms of critical and creative thinking skills from republic to present day

Within the scope of this study, it was aimed to investigate the official (written) basic education (elementary/ secondary school/ primary school) mathematics curricula in terms of critical and creative thinking skills from the foundation of the Republic until day. This research was designed as qualitative study and document analysis was used. The data were obtained from the texts of the basic education mathematics curricula that were implemented from the foundation of the Republic to nowadays. Documents were analyzed by content analysis technique. Based on the scope of critical and creative thinking skills in the literature, codes related to these skills have been created. Similar codes were grouped into categories. In terms of critical thinking skills, seven categories have been determined: (1) Reasoning, (2) Decision making or conclusion, (3) Recognizing assumptions, (4) Calculating from the mind or using estimation strategies, (5) Researching, (6) Evaluating, (7) Critical thinking. In terms of creative thinking skills, five categories have been determined: (1) Searching for different or original paths, (2) Calculating from the mind or using estimation strategies, (3) Discover or create, (4) Problem posing or enrichment, (5) Creative thinking. 15 curricula implemented throughout the history of the Republic were analyzed according to the categories. The curricula were compared according to the availability of these categories in the objectives, learning situations and testing situations. As a result, all programs implemented until 2017, including the 1924 program, were seen to address critical and creative thinking. However, it has been determined that the prominent categories in the programs change and there are different distributions according to the sections. In the curricula, a standard has not been established in terms of critical and creative thinking skills. Another result is that when examined in terms of goals, learning situations and testing situations, the goals are on the foreground in all programs, and in the other cases there is not enough explanations to develop critical and creative thinking skills. Keywords: mathematics curriculum, critical thinking, creative thinking, document analysis.