Investigation of middle school students' math self efficacy perceptions and math problem posing attitudes

The main purpose of the current study is to investigate middle school students' math self efficacy perceptions and math problem posing attitudes. The current study adopting qualitative research approach employed a model suitable for the relational survey design. The sample of the current study is comprised of 900 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students attending state middle schools in the Fethiye province of the city of Muğla in the 2019-2020 school year. In the current study, a personal information form developed by the researcher, the "Math Self Efficacy Perception Scale" developed by Umay (2001) and the "Math Problem Posing Attitude Scale" developed by Katrancı and Şengül for middle school students were used to collect data. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS 22 program package. In the analysis of the data collected by means of quantitative research method, frequencies, percentages, independent samples t-test and one-way variance analysis (ANOVA), post-hoc tests (Scheffe and Dunnett's C) and correlation analysis were used. According to the findings obtained from the analyses, the middle school students' math self efficacy perceptions and math problem posing attitudes are higher than the medium level. While the middle school students' math self efficacy perceptions were found to be varying significantly depending on gender in the sub-dimension of math self-perception, they were found to be not varying significantly depending on gender in the whole scale and in the sub-dimensions of awareness of behaviours in math subjects and converting math into life skills. On the other hand, while the students' math problem posing attitudes were found to be varying significantly depending on gender in the sub-dimensions of not considering important and self-confidence and in the whole scale, they were found to be not varying significantly depending on gender in the sub-dimension of disliking. The students' math self-efficacy perceptions were found to be not varying significantly depending on taking classes outside the school. In addition, scale, they were found to be varying significantly depending on taking classes outside the school in the sub-dimension while the students' math problem posing attitudes were found to be not varying significantly depending on taking classes outside the school in the sub-dimensions of disliking, not considering important and in the whole scale, they were found to be varying significantly depending on taking classes outside the school in the sub-dimension of self-confidence. In the current study, the math self efficacy perceptions and math problem posing attitudes of the 5th and 6th grade students were found to be significantly higher than those of the 7th and 8th grade students. Finally, a positive, medium and significant correlation was found between the middle school students' math self efficacy perceptions and math problem posing attitudes.