Teachers' views on applicaility of field-specific competencies of primary school math teaching and suggestions

This study aims to reveal teachers' views on attainability of learning outcomes in elementary mathematics teaching field-specific competencies and to bring about suggestions by determining the reasons of failure. Qualitative and quantitative research methods are used together and are mixed models and mixed models; After the quantitative data was collected and analyzed before, the sequential transformational design in which qualitative data was collected and analyzed was used. In this direction, the study has the characteristics of "mixed methods research" Primary school math teachers working in İstanbul-Küçükçekmece district during 2017-2018 academic year consisted of the study population and 182 teachers from this population were the sample. This study employed mixed method since it included both quantitative and qualitative data. "The Attainability of Primary School Math Teachers' Field-Specific Competencies' Outcomes" questionnaire was developed to collect data. The questionnaire investigated the attainability of outcomes related to planning and designing teaching environments, developing math skills, professional development, monitoring, evaluating and improving teaching, collaboration with school, parents and society competencies. In qualitative phase of the study, the participants were chosen by criterion sampling method. According to this, teachers' whose views were "Never" or "Rarely" on the questionnaire and who were graduates of primary school math teaching department were included in this phase. There were 10 teachers who satisfied this criterion. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with these teachers. In the analysis of quantitative data, teachers' views were compared by variables such as age, experience, educational level, department and faculty graduated. Kruskal Wallis test were run to compare the groups and the significance was tested at ,05 level. When there was a statistically significant difference among the groups, Mann-Whitney U test was run to detect the source of difference. Gender created a statistically significant difference in professional development, talented students and technology use sub-scales. On the other hand, experience created a statistically significant difference in teaching-learning processes, teaching methods and techniques, mathematical concepts, problem solving ability, students' positive attitude towards math, students' self-evaluation, using math in different fields and preparing original materials sub-scales. As for age, there was a statistically significant difference in using math in different fields and the place of math in society as a way of thinking. Qualitative data were collected through two different methods. For competencies in which "Never" and "Rarely" were in the first rank, interview questions were prepared, and they were determined as primary questions. There were 16 questions as described and these competencies were investigated through interviews. For competencies in which "Never" and "Rarely" were in the second rank, the questions were determined as secondary and they were responded written. Descriptive analysis was employed in qualitative phase. Based on findings, suggestions for researchers and practitioners were brought.