The relationship between the stereotypes and academic achievement in Mathematics of secondary school students(The sample of Cacabey secondary school in Kırşehir )

The aim of this study is to identify the secondary school students' stereotyped thoughts about mathematic lessons, explore the relationship between the stereotyped thoughts about Math lessons and their academic achievements and determine whether it differs with grade levels and gender. Relational survey model has been used for the study. The research has been carried out on fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade students attending Cacabey Secondary school during fall term of 2015 – 2016 Education year in Kırşehir. The total number of students in this research was 1181, composed of 330 fifth grade, 290 sixth grade, 269 seventh grade, 292 eighth grade students. In developed scale for stereotyped thoughts, KMO coefficient 0890 and Barlett Test significance Value (351)= 2486,968 of this scale was smaller than 0,01. According to DFA, the goodness of fit criteria were found to be X2 /sd: 2,78 RMSEA: 0,055 , SRMR: 0,060 , NFI: 0,96 , NNFI: 0,97 , CFI:0,98 , IFI:0,98 , RFI: 0,96 , GFI:0,98 and AGFI:0,88 respectively. Employing reliability analysis, internal consistency was found to be 0,902 and split half reliability was 0,868. As a result, a reliable and valid scale composing of 27 Likert type sentences and having 4 factors were developed. Closeness to the normal distribution has examined as considering their descriptive statistical values. The use of parametric test was applied since it seems closeness for normal distribution. Pearson Correlation Analysis was used to investigate the relationship between the stereotyped thoughts about mathematic lesson and academic achievements. Independent T test for gender and ANOVA test analysis were applied for gender and grade level. Significance level is smaller than 0,05. The obtained data was analyzed through SPSS 20 program and LISREL 8,8. In the research findings students' beliefs about correspond to the range of "I don't agree" in the stereotyped thought scale. It is determined that there isn't significance between the gender and KDÖ. It is seen that there has been a significant difference between 6th and 5th graders in favor of 6th graders, between 7th and 5th graders in favor of 7th graders, between 8th and 5th graders in favor of 8th graders. It is showed that there is a significant negative relationship between the successful students' scores with KDÖ. Key Words: Academic achievement, Developing scale, Mathematic, Stereotyped thoughts