An examination of the secondary school mathematics courses offered on the Education Information Network (EBA) platform in terms of open-ended questions and different solution methods

The aim of this study is to examine the types of questions used in the content of the 7th grade secondary school mathematics courses offered on the EBA distance education platform and the different solution methods used for these questions. For this purpose, the questions were analysed in terms of open-ended questions and closed-ended questions categories. Open-ended questions were analysed under the subcategories of questions with finite variable multiple correct answers and questions with infinite correct answers; closed-ended questions were analysed under the subcategories of questions with single correct answer and questions with certain multiple correct answers. The solutions of the questions were analysed in the categories of one solution way, two solution ways and three or more solution ways. The presentation of possible different answers to questions with more than one answer was also analysed. In this direction, 68 EBA course videos at the 7th grade level were selected by purposive sampling method, the selected lessons were watched and the questions solved in the lessons were analysed through the conceptual frameworks. When all the findings were evaluated together, it was seen that only 2.89% of the questions in the lessons were open-ended questions and 97.11% were closed-ended questions. In the sub-category of open-ended questions, questions with finite variable multiple correct answers constituted 2.57% of all questions, while questions with infinite multiple correct answers constituted 0.32% of all questions. When the subcategories of closed-ended questions were analysed, it was seen that 97.11% of all questions had single correct answer questions and certain multiple correct answer questions were not used in the observed lessons. With regard to the use of different solution methods for the questions, the findings show that 89.14% of the questions were solved with one solution method, 10.24% with two solution methods and only 0.62% with three or more solution methods. As a result, it was seen that the use of open-ended questions and different solution methods in the lessons presented on the EBA platform is very limited.