The effect of mathematical modeling activities on the mathematical success levels, attitude and permanentity of primary fourth year students

This research was designed according to the mixed research model in which quantitative and qualitative models were used in order to discover the effect of the teaching approach with mathematical modeling activities on the achievements, attitudes, the permanence of the fourth-grade students in the mathematics course and views of students teachers. The study is conducted in a private middle school in Seyhan/Adana in the 2018-2019 academic. The participants are fourth graders who are middle-high socioeconomic level. The experimental and control groups in the study insist 75 students whose parents' education level are close to each other. Students' gender distribution was homogeneous, and their education level is close to each other. This study consisted of four classes that semi-randomly selected according to students' classroom level and math attitude results and they were determined as two experimental groups and two control groups. In the application process, the experimental groups were taught by the researcher the natural numbers with the mathematical modeling activities teaching approach, while the control groups were given the current teaching method by the classroom teacher according to the guide book prepared in line with the Mathematics Course Curriculum in the 2018-2019 MEB Curriculum. Mathematics Achievement Test that is chosen from TIMMS' questions, Math Attitude Scale by Baykul (1990), Semi-Structured Student Interview Form, and Semi-Structured Teacher Interview Form were used to collect data. Semi-Structured Student Interview form was used to seven students from each of the experimental groups 14 students to collect qualitative data. Semi-Structured Teacher Interview form was conducted to determine the opinions of mathematical modeling activities to eight teachers. Single Factor Covariance (ANCOVA) Analysis was used to test whether mathematical modeling activities had a statistically significant effect on the scores of TIMMS Natural Number Mathematics Achievement Test and Math Attitude Test VA before and after the experiment. Also, the data analysis of the interviews with the students was done by content analysis and the data analysis of the interviews with the teachers was done by descriptive analysis. SPSS 22.0 was used for the analysis of the quantitative data, and p =, 05 significance level was used to interpret the data. According to the quantitative data that was obtained from the study, a statistically significant difference was found in favor of the natural numbers achievement test posttest and retention test experimental groups. Besides, it was observed that the experimental group's test results were more positive than the control groups. As a result of the semi-structured interviews with the students, they stated that with mathematical modeling activities, the lesson processing was found to be much more fun and beautiful and therefore they learned the subjects better.With the semi-structured interviews with the teachers, the language of the TIMMS questions is clear, to increase the success of the TIMMS, the development of the curriculum and instead of rote system reading comprehension system should be developed. The mathematical modeling activities can be used and it will be useful by connecting the activities to daily life but there can only be a timing problem in the crowded classes. Key Words: Mathematics education, real life problems, mathematical modeling activities, TIMMS, natural number