Evaluation of high school mathematics curriculum according to CIPP model

Today, social and economic life change and develop in proportion to scientific developments. The social and economic welfare of countries depend on that country's development level in science and technology. It is indisputable that the quality of teaching in science and mathematics is highly effective and essential for the development of science and technology. A continuous and qualified mathematics education, starting from primary school, is of paramount importance in the achievement in the field of mathematics. It is observed that it has not been accomplished the desired level of achievement in mathematics when we consider the overall mathematics course curriculums in 92 years and average scores obtained from both national examinations conducted in our country and international examinations attended by our country. The only way to accomplish the desired level of achievement in mathematics is through the implementation of educational programs consistent with the country's development objectives. It is accepted that teachers, curriculum, students and the environment are the basic elements of an education system. Undoubtedly, teachers and students have a crucial role to develop and implement a curriculum. At this point, it is important to take opinions of mathematics teachers regarding the effectiveness of the curriculum, as the practitioners of the curriculum of secondary school mathematics course. It can be said that the success of the curriculum depends on the facts that the curriculum is correctly understood and adopted by teachers and students, implemented in an effective and correct way. In this context, the purpose of this research is to evaluate the 2013 Secondary Education Mathematics Curriculum according to CIPP model, in line with the views of teachers and students. In this research, survey model, one of the quantitative research models, was utilized. In addition, the qualitative data were collected from teachers via a semi-structured interview form. The sample of the research is comprised of 711 mathematics teachers and 1767 high school students from several cities in Turkey. A semi-structured interview form was applied to 48 participants from the same sampling group. Data collection tools for teachers in the research were a scale and a semi-structured interview form. For the students was applied a scale including items about the process and product dimensions of the curriculum. All data collection tools used in the study were developed by the researcher under the supervision of thesis advisor. Quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, parametric and non-parametric tests while qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive analysis. According to the results of the research, mathematics teachers are at the "Moderately Agree" level of agreement in terms of the 'context' and 'input evaluation' dimensions of the curriculum while they "Don't Agree" in terms of 'process' and 'product' dimensions. Teachers' views on mathematics curriculum do not significantly differ according to gender and educational status. However, there exists a significant difference in terms of "experience" "the status of reviewing the curriculum", "having in-service training", "the faculty graduated" and "school type that the teachers work in" variables, in all dimensions. Teachers' opinions differ according to the average class size variable for 'input' and 'process' dimensions. Their opinions differ only in product dimension according to the weekly course hours. Teachers' opinions significantly differ in terms of input, process and product dimensions according to 'the number of mathematics teachers in the schools' variable. Teachers' opinions indicate that the curriculum is insufficient to meet current needs. It was concluded that social, economic and regional conditions were not sufficiently taken into account during the preparation of the curriculum, problems were encountered in the implementation of the curriculum and the desired results could not be obtained. It was emphasized by the participating teachers that all of the stakeholders should be actively involved in curriculum development process, adequate time should be allocated for pilot implementations and different curricula need to be prepared for different types of high schools. Students' opinions regarding the 'process' and 'product' dimensions of the program are at "Moderately Agree" level. The student opinions are not significantly affected by the gender variable. The students' opinions vary in the 'process' and 'product' dimensions according to the field and school type variables. The students' opinions differ according to the variables 'taking private course / lessons' in the 'product' dimension. The students' opinions differ only in the product dimension according to the daily time allocated to study. According to the results of the research, some suggestions were developed for the practitioners of the mathematics curriculum, those involved in the curriculum development processes and the researchers.