The effect of mathematical modeling activities on mathematical modeling competences of sixth grade students, visual mathematics literacy perceptions and reading skills

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the teaching process conducted with mathematical modeling activities on mathematical modeling competencies, visual mathematics self-efficacy perceptions and reading comprehension skills of 6th grade students.In the quantitative part of this study, a quasi-experimental model consisting of pre-test and post-test was used, while semi-structured interviews were conducted with students in the qualitative part. In this context, the descriptive sequential design of the mixed method was used, since qualitative data were used to collect quantitative data first and then explain these data in detail. A teaching process based on mathematical modeling activities was carried out for 7 weeks with 36 sixth grade students. "Reading Comprehension Achievement Test", "Visual Literacy Self-Efficacy Perception Scale" and "Mathematical Modeling Competence Test" and "Modeling Competence Assessment Rubric" were used as data collection tools. As a result of the analysis, an increase was observed in the reading comprehension skills scores of the students at the end of the teaching process with mathematical modeling activities, but no significant relationship was found between reading comprehension skills and mathematical modeling competencies. It showed that the process with activities made significant contributions to students' visual mathematics perceptions and mathematical modeling competence levels. A moderately significant correlation was found between visual mathematical literacy self-efficacy perceptions and modeling competencies. Keywords: Mathematical modeling, reading comprehension, self-efficacy perception