The effect of realistic mathematics education on student achievement and mathematics attitude about operations with integers

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Realistic Mathematics Education on 7th grade students' success in operations with integers and their attitudes towards mathematics and to determine students' views on the RME approach. The research was carried out with the participation of 11 7th grade students (6 girls, 5 boys) studying at a state secondary school in the Gazipaşa district of Antalya province in the 2020-2021 academic year. In the determination of the research group, "appropriate/accidental sampling" method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used. Exploratory sequential mixed design, one of the mixed research methods in which qualitative and quantitative data are used together, was used in this study, which examines the effects of Realistic Mathematics Education on students' achievements and mathematics attitudes in operations with integers, as well as student views on the RME approach. In the quantitative part of the research, one group pre-test-post-test design, which is one of the weak experimental designs, was used, and case study was used in the qualitative part. In the research, the achievement test consisting of 10 open-ended questions prepared by the researcher and the mathematics attitude scale developed by the Department of Education Research and Development (EARGED) were used as quantitative data sources, semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher and student diaries as qualitative data sources. In the first week and last week of the 5-week implementation process, students were given an achievement test and a math attitude scale, every week they were asked to write a diary in which they expressed their opinions about the activities, and interviews were held within 3 weeks after the application. SPSS 23 package program was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the achievement test and mathematics attitude scale, which constitute the quantitative part of the study. Before starting the analyses, Shapiro-Wilk normality test was applied to test the normality of the achievement test and mathematics attitude scale pretest and posttest. After providing the assumption of normality, t-Test for Dependent Samples (Paired-Samples T-Test) was applied in the analysis of quantitative data. As a result of the research, it was seen that Realistic Mathematics Education increased students' success and positively affected their attitudes towards mathematics. In addition, it was concluded that the students had positive thoughts about Realistic Mathematics Education.