The effect of montessori materials supported individual and cooperative math activities on early mathematical reasoning skills

The aim of this study is to analyse the effects of individual and cooperative mathematics activities supported by Montessori materials on mathematical reasoning skills of pre-school children. In the study, "pre-test post-test control group design" technique was applied. The study included a total of 45 children, 15 of which constituted the experimental group-1; 15 of which constituted the experimental group-2 in the Y High School Practice Pre-School in Kırklareli city centre, and 15 of them constituted the control group in the X Kindergarten. The application was carried out by using the Montessori Materials Supported Individual Math Activities in the experimental group-1, Montessori Materials Supported Cooperative Math Activities in the experimental group-2, and mathematics activities supported by MEB (2013) Preschool Education Program in the control group. Personal data form and "Early Mathematical Reasoning Skills Assessment Tool" were used as data collection tools. Kruskal Wallis Test and Mann Whitney U Test were used to analyse the data collected in the fall semester of 2018-2019 academic year. In the results obtained under the first hypothesis of the study, there was a statistically significant difference between the performance of experimental group-1 and the control group in terms of mathematical reasoning skills in favour of experimental group-1. In the results obtained under the second hypothesis of the study, there was a statistically significant difference between the performance of experimental group-2 and the control group in terms of mathematical reasoning skills in favour of experimental group-2. In the results obtained under the third hypothesis of the study, there was a statistically significant difference between the performance of experimental group-1 and the experimental group-2 in terms of mathematical reasoning skills in favour of experimental group-2. In the results obtained under the fourth hypothesis of the study, it was found that the performance of the children constituting the experimental group-1, the experimental group-2 and the control group regarding mathematical reasoning were not significantly different according to the gender. Key Words: Preschool Education, Montessori Method, Reasoning, Mathematics, Cooperative Learning