The investigation of mathematical tasks related to piimary school secondary level algebra learning field in terms of cogiitive demands: Mathematics course books and classroom implementations

With the recent curriculum modification in Turkey, it is natural that some changes have occurred in terms of teacher and student roles and course books, the main elements of teaching and instruction environment in classes. It is important that mathematical tasks which support the student learning in teaching environment should include the student in cognitive thinking process. In this study, the mathematical tasks related to the algebra learning field in the 6, 7 and 8th year mathematics course books, which were prepared by Ministry of Education, and algebraic tasks used by 4 primary school mathematics teachers in classes were compared in terms of cognitive demands. In the study, the cognitive demand levels of algebraic tasks were categorized as ?memorization?, ?procedures without connections?, ?procedures with connections? and ?doing mathematics? (Stein, Smith, Henningsen and Silver, 2000); and analyzed. The study was carried out by means of content analysis and by investigating the video recordings of the courses of 4 primary school mathematics teachers related to algebra learning field.Based on the data of the study, it was found that the tasks related to algebra learning field in the course books of all grades were mostly ?mathematical method based on connecting? type tasks. As for the classroom implementations, a decrease in terms of cognitive demand levels and mathematical tasks types which were not based on connecting were observed. There might be many reasons in this decrease occurred in cognitive demand levels of algebraic tasks. In the study, the factors affecting the decrease were found to be ?the time allocated for the task?, ?reasoning and thinking of the student?, ?solving strategies?, ?connecting with the concept? and ?social environment?. There is a need for in-service training seminars on the cognitive demand levels of the tasks presented to the student and how to maintain this level. With the in-service training seminars, a perspective on how to implement a high level algebraic task without reducing the cognitive demand levels could be developed.