The effect of differentiated instruction on mathematical attitudes and achievements of third grade primary school learners

This study has been carried out in order to define the effects of Differentiated Instruction Method on the mathematical attıtudes and achievements of primary school third grade learners. It is designed for the mixed research model, which is used both qualitative and quantitative models. The quantitative data has been designed on semi-experimental model with pretest and posttest control group. This study has been conducted in a state primary school in Ceyhan, Adana within third grade learners that have a low socioeconomic level. In this study, experimental and control groups have been formed by 40 students that have similar academicals success and parental education level and whose sex have been dispersed homogeneously. The experimental group of the study has been formed by semi-randomly selected 20 students who got similar points from tests and had similar learning styles. The control group of the study was the other class on the same grade. During the application, the topic of "Fractions" was taught by Differentiated Instruction Method in the experimental group, while it was taught by Traditional Method in the control group according to the course book of mathematics. In the experimental group, the courses were taught by the researcher and in the control group it was taught by the teacher of the class. The data has been collected by using "Mathematics Achievement Test", "Mathematics Attitude Scale", "Learning Styles Scale" and "Semi-Structured Interview Form". "Mathematics Achievement Test" and" "Mathematics Attitude Scale" have been applied to both experimental and control groups as pretest, posttest and permanence test. "Learning Styles Scale" has been applied to only the experimental group during the lesson. To collect the qualitative data, "Semi-Structured Interview Form" has been used to find out thoughts of the learners about the Differentiated Instruction Method. One factor Ancova has been used in order to find out whether the Differentiated Instruction Method has any statistical effects on the points of Mathematics Achievement Test" and" "Mathematics Attitude Test" before and after the experiment. Content analysis has been used in order to analyze the Interview Form SPSS 22.0 has been used in the analysis of the quantitative data. In all statistical analysis significance level criteria have been set to 0.05. According to the data obtained at the end of the research, there is a significant difference in the post test results of achievement test in favor of the experimental group. At the end of the semi-structured interview, student said that they liked mathematics lessons more than before, they were motivated to the lessons much more and their learning process was more permanent than before thanks to Differentiated Instruction Method.