A study on training secondary school students, who have high maths ability, through mathematics olympiads

The purpose of this study is to have students study on National Tubitak Secondary School Mathematics Olympiads, after choosing students who have highly skillful in maths. Throughout this aim an accelerated and enriched re-designed maths curriculum have been carried out to students. Another purpose of the study is to elevate 8th grade students who have high maths ability to 12th grade students who shows good performance in maths. In the research a post-test control group model, which is one of the quantative methods, was used to determine effects of experimental process. During the process an enriched, differentiated re-designed maths curriculum carried out to students. After process, effects have been analysed with SPSS 13.0 acording to TEOG Maths Level, YGS Maths Level and Olympiad Maths Level. The universe of the Research consisted of 5th grade students who have high maths Ability in 2013/2014 academic year in Antalya. In the determination of highly skillful students in maths, "criterion-based sampling" which is one of the purposeful sampling methods,was used. A Maths Competition named "ATOMYA" has carried out among 784 students in Antalya in order to identify students. 30 students who performed the best have been invited and educated for two weeks long. After this period, best 15 students have been choosen for the olympiad education, called experimental. Because of the design of the study Control Group 1, consisted of 15 students who are 8th grade high performed students in maths and Control Group 2, consisted of 15 students who are 12 th grade high performed students in maths were choosen acording to criterion-based sampling. Both two control groups were assigned randomly among students whom are suggested as high performed students in maths by their teachers. Re-designed Maths Curriculum was prepared with the help of expert opinion. After carring out the curriculum for 3 years, in 2015/2016 academic year "National Tubitak Mathematics Olympiad 2010", "TEOG 2016 Maths Questions" and "YGS 2016 Maths Questions" have been carried out to groups as data collection tools. The results of the tests were analysied with independent sample t-test, one sample t-test and Welch, Brown-Forsythe tests in SPSS 13.0. In the result of the Research, it has been come out that in the Level of YGS Maths, there is no significant difference between Experrimental Group and Control Group 2. Also there is no significantly difference between Experrimental Group and Control Group 1 in the level of TEOG Maths. But, on the other hand, in the level of Olmpiad Maths (Harder questions acording to university examination) there is significant difference between Experrimental Group and Control Groups. Acording to the result of the analyse Experrimental Group is better than the other two groups in harder questions. Also, one sample t-test analyse has showned that Experrimental Group has reached the desired level.