The factors that affect mathematics education successat middle school and projections on future

In this study, Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping is used to determine the factors that affecting success in primary school mathematics lessons. Also, predictions for the future are conducted by strengthening or improving these obtained factors. Although the difficulty of analyzing the qualitative data and the restrictive structure of the questionnaire which affects the interviewers, the fuzzy cognitive mapping method helps to reveal subjective thoughts without any constraints, without boring the interviewee. In addition, linguistic expressions are converted to standard variables and correlated between them to show cause-effect relationships. As a result of the structural analysis of the fuzzy cognitive maps, it was seen that the interviewees drew democratic and less dense maps and defined the factors affecting mathematics achievement with a total of 67 variables. Students 'mathematical intelligence, family interest and socio-economic status, students' attitude towards mathematics, the difficulty of the curriculum and regular study and repetition were the most central variables. As a result of the neural network simulations of the cognitive maps, if the mathematical intelligence of the student which is a central variable, improved; the student's fear of not being able to do mathematics is decreased; if the attitude of the student towards the mathematics is improved, as a same, the student's fear of not being able to do mathematics is decreased. In addition, if the socio-economic status of the family is improved, the student's fear of not being able to do mathematics and the difficulty of the syllabus is decreased, and the mathematical intelligence will be improved.