Using the activity-based teaching for elimination of algebrical misconceptions of 7th grade students

The first one to be done in order to ensure an effective teaching is the identification of students have misconceptions that. It is important to detect the misconception, and the remedy is much more important. Despite the fact that there are many studies to determine in our country, there are very few studies for eliminating. It is thought that it is important to investigate the effectiveness of a teaching other than teaching with activities in the current program in changing the misconceptions that students experience in algebra. For this reason, in this study, it is aimed to determine the possible difficulties encountered in the field of algebra learning by middle school 7th grade students and the effectiveness of activity based learning environments designed for conceptual misconceptions. The activities designed to suit the levels of the students can provide both amusing and access to information on their own experiences. In this study, attention was paid to the fact that the activities were based on student-centered active involvement, that the students could construct their own knowledge and apply this knowledge in new situations, related to daily life, interesting, different thinking and creativity. In this study, researcher teacher method was used. Moreover, the study was also supported mixed method that establishes a bridge between qualitative and quantitative research. The sample of the study is 54 students who are going to seventh grade of a middle school in a province of Van in 2016-2017 education year. For this teaching, 14 activities related to topics in algebra learning were prepared by researcher and teaching took about 3 weeks. In the quantitative part of the study, a 26-questions concept test was developed to determine students' conceptual meanings and conceptual misconceptions in the field of algebraic learning. The data were analyzed by entering the SPSS packet program. For the purpose of the study, pre-test / post-test model with control-experiment group was used in experimental method. In the qualitative part of the study 12 students (6 experiments, 6 controls) were chosen from the experiment and control group. After application of the students who have similar misconceptions from the groups were asked to examine changes in these misconceptions. Forty-minute interviews were conducted with these students and interviews were recorded. The results of the research show that the learning environments designed based on activities are more effective in the sense of algebraic concepts and in conceptual misconceptions than teaching with activities in the current program. It should not be forgotten that in the teaching of abstract algebra concepts students may fall into the misconceptions and concrete materials, visual items and the latest mathematical symbols should be used to make these concepts easier to perceive.