The Effect of teaching geometry based on Van Hiele Levels on the acedemic success, attitudes and recall levels of the 5 th grade primary school students in mathematics course

ABSTRACT THE EFFECT OF TEACHING GEOMETRY BASED ON VAN HIELE LEVELS ON THE ACADEMIC SUCCESS, ATTITUDES AND RECALL LEVELS OF THE 5th GRADE PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE MATHEMATICS COURSE Çiğdem KILIÇ Department of Primary Education, Primary School Programme Anadolu University Graduate School of Educational Sciences, July 2003 Advisor: Assistant Professor Mehmet GÜLTEKÎN The aim of the education system of the societies in the information age is to bring up individuals thinking logically, deciding correctly and overcoming the encountered problems easily. The so-called skills required to be gained by every individual in society, are the main skills given through the beginning of primary education. At primary education, one of the courses providing the acquisition of these skills is maths. However, maths is considered as disliked, frightening course with a low success in grades. This is also a problem in teaching geometry, a sub-branch of maths. Considering both the dislike of geometry subjects and the problems in geometry teaching the Hiele developed van Hiele model in 1950's. According to this model, students perform their geometric thought development through five levels in hiearchy. This model is thought to have the quality of solving the problems in geometry teaching. The aim of this research is to find the effect of teaching geometry based on van Hiele levels on the academic success, attitudes and recall levels of the 5th grade primary school students in the mathematics course. In this research, pre and post test controlled group model was used. It was applied during the first term of 2002-2003 academic year at Kardeşler Primay School in Eskişehir. 5-A and 5-B classes was participated in this study. One of the classes was IVselected as the control group and the other was selected as the experimental group randomly. For data collection an attitude scale, van Hiele geometry test and a geometry success test prepared by researcher were used. The success test and the attitude scale were given to both experimental and control groups before applying the instruction. By the help of equalized group method, the pre-test scores and the result of van Hiele geometry test were equalized to experimental and control groups, 20 students in each group with a total of 40. The experimental group was instructed by using van Hiele levels. This process was not carried out with the control group. Both groups were given a "Geometry Success Test" prepared by researcher as pre-test, post-test and recall test, "Mathematics Attitude Scale" as pre-test and post-test. Also "van Hiele Geometry Test" was used to define the geometric thought levels of students. For data analyses, averages of pre-test, post-test, recall test and attitude scale scores were calculated and standart deviation of the scores were find out, and t-test was used to for group comparison. The groups' average difference was interpreted as.05 level. The findings of the study are as follows: 1. There was a significant difference between students in experimental group, which was instructed by van Hiele levels and the control group, which was not instructed by van Hiele levels in terms of success. 2. There was not a significant difference between students in experimental group, which was instructed by van Hiele levels and the control group, which was not instructed by van Hiele levels in terms of attitudes. 3. There was a significant difference between students in experimental group which was instructed by van Hiele levels and the control group which was not instructed by van Hiele levels in terms of recall levels.