The effects of realistic mathematics education on 7th grade students' achievements and motivations in area of quadrilaterals

Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) is a teaching and learning theory in mathematics education that was first introduced and developed in the Netherlands. This theory has been adopted by a large number of countries all over the world. According to this theory mathematics is a human activity and mathematics must be connected to reality. In RME, the word realistic, refers not just to the connection with the real world, but also refers to problem situations which are real in students' minds. The aim of this study is to research the effects of realistic maths education about quadrangles for seventh grader on their academic success and motivation. The study maintained with the static group comparative pattern which is one of the weak experimental design has been done in a public secondary school in Gaziantep province. The research group consist of totally 53 students; 23 male and 30 female students. In the study, pre-test, past-test and mathematics motivation scale were used as tools for getting information. While maths lesson were taught in a traditional way in control group; in test group realistic maths activities were used. In a two weeks-lasting application, tests were applied simultaneously before and after practice. According to information, average academic success applied in test group was observed to be much more than control group dramatically. Moreover, while it is known that there was no difference in students' motivation before practice; after practice, test group were much more positive than control group was observed.