Number sense skills and number sense self-efficacies of middle school students

The aim of this study is to analyze number sense and number sense self-efficacies of middle school students in grades 6, 7 and 8. It also aims to reveal connections and differences by comparing number sense skills and number sense self-efficacies. This study was conducted in 3 public schools and 1 private school in Safranbolu , Karabük in 2018-2019 educational year. It was conducted with 6th, 7th and 8th grade students, 301 in total, who study at these schools. In this study, explanatory mixed method, which with quantitative and qualitative research methods together, is determined as the model of the research. In the quantitative part of the research, Number Sense Scale developed by Kayhan Altay (2010) and scale of Self- Efficacy on Number Sense developed by Ulusoy Alkaş and Şahiner (2017) were used as the scale tools. The data obtained from these scales were analyzed.Number sense skills and number sense self-efficacy levels were analyzed. Differences between number sense and number sense self-efficacy according to gender and school type were analyzed with Mann-Whitney U test. Differences between grade levels were analyzed with Oneway ANOVA. The analyze of connection between number sense and number sense self-efficacy was made with Spearman's rho. In the quantitative part of the research, interview questions which were chosen from Number Sense Scale were prepared and students were interviewed with these questions. These interviews were voice-recorded and analyzed with descriptive analyze method. Results showed that students' number sense skills were low while their number sense self-efficacies were high. In both scales while there wasn't observed a meaningful difference in terms of gender, female students' number sense skills and male students number sense self-efficacies were higher. A meaningful difference was observed in number sense and number sense self-efficacy in terms of school types. When analyzed in terms of grade levels a meaningful difference in number sense was observed in 6th and 8th grades while there wasn't a meaningful difference between 6th and 7th grades and 7th and 8th grades. On the other hand in number sense self-efficacy a meaningful difference wasn't observed. Moreover, while an increase was observed in number sense skills as the class levels go up, an opposite situation drew attention in number sense self-efficacy. A significant relation with positive direction between number sense and number sense self-efficacy emerged. As a result of the interviews it was found out that students were tend to use rule-based solution strategies and they used number sense stratejies when encouraged. Besides, it was stated that when students applied what they learnt to their daily life, their number sense self-efficacies increased and they used number sense strategies. Key words: number sense, self-efficacy, number sense self-efficacy.