The effect of using creative drama as a method on attitudes towards mathematics and anxiety

This study aimed to identify the effect of creative drama method on 6th grade students' anxiety and attitudes towards mathematics. For this purpose, the effect of creative drama method was used in 6th grade mathematics lesson on anxiety, and attitudes towards mathematics were investigated. Within the scope of the research, the subject of whole numbers in the 6th grade mathematics course in secondary school was taught. The study group consisted of 15 girls, 10 boys (experimental group), 13 girls and 12 boys (control group) in 6-A Branch in the 6th grade of 2016-2017 academic years. Before conducting the study in order to collect quantitative data, mathematics attitude and anxiety scales were administered to the experimental and control groups about the whole numbers. During the study, the whole numbers were studied by using creative drama method in the experimental group and with the traditional teaching method in the control group. At the end of the study, mathematics attitude and anxiety scales were implemented to both groups again. As a qualitative method, open-ended questions in the evaluation form were asked to the students. The obtained data were obtained by using frequency analysis , one of the content analysis types. In the content analysis, the frequencies of the words were determined from the data obtained as a result of the application of the study group and the percentages were calculated and interpreted. As a result of the findings, it is possible to say that the application of drama method has a significant effect on increasing mathematics attitudes of students. The findings show that it is possible to say that drama method had no significant effect on reducing students' math anxiety. However, the qualitative data obtained from the research show that the creative drama process facilitates students' understanding of the subject. Keywords: Creative drama, Maths, Integers, Attitude, Anxiety.