Secondary grade 11 and 12 basic mathematics textbooks investigation according to problem solving strategies

Problem solving skill is the ability to think about the problem, to decide what and how to do, to use resources and to reach a solution in this way. In this respect, problem solving skills can be one of the important elements of daily life skills. Therefore, one of the main objectives of the Ministry of National Education's curriculum is to develop students' problem-solving skills. It is known that the contents of mathematics textbooks have an important place in the development of these skills. In this context, it is aimed to examine the problems in the content and measurement and evaluation questions of the 11th and 12th grade Basic Level Mathematics textbooks according to the problem solving strategies. In the study, an 11th grade Basic Level Mathematics textbook and a 12th grade Basic Level Mathematics textbook approved by the Board of Education and Discipline for use in secondary education were examined, and the data were created using the document analysis technique. In the study, 510 problems in both books, which were examined by a researcher and a consultant, were arranged in line with the joint decision of the two researchers, according to the 8 most frequently used problem solving strategies in the literature. As a result of the research, it was observed that among the problem solving methods we determined, the strategies such as setting up equations, reasoning, drawing shapes were used the most, and strategies such as simplifying the problem and working backwards were given very little space. It has been revealed that in the textbooks examined, very few questions that can be solved with more than one problem solving strategy are included. It is of great importance for student development that students are aware of problem-solving methods and that they can see in textbooks that a problem can be solved in different ways.