Teachers' opinions on the effect of the secondary education admission exam on their teaching in schools

The purpose of this study is to determine how the High School Transition System (LGS), which is the transition exam to secondary education, influences the middle school mathematics teachers' teaching strategies. Descriptive content analysis, that is one of the qualtitative reseach methods is used in the study. Participants were 21 middle school mathematics teachers working in different cities in Turkey. Ten semi-structured open-ended questions developed by the researcher were used for the data collection. During the interviews the teachers were asked to explain their views about LGS in general, the effects of the central examination on their mathematics teaching, the effects of the central examination on their own and the students. According to the findings, a few teachers reported that they changed their teaching due to LGS. They explained the reasons for the change as the intensity of the middle school mathematics curriculum and as the decrease in lesson hours. Many teachers reported that they made some changes in their mathematics teaching method due to centralized testing. While middle school mathematics teachers declared that they generally follow the mathematics curriculum in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades, they spend additional time for the preparation to LGS in eighth grade mathematics classrooms. In addition, the teachers stated that the central examination system puts pressure on mathematics teachers. They also declared that they feel responsible for preparing students for the exam. Finally, they stated that LGS create pressure and anxiety on students.