Comparision of the cognitive and metacognive strategies used by students with autism and students with typical development while solving mathematical problems

The general purpose of this research is; to compare the cognitive and metacognitive strategies used by middle school students with autism and their typically developing peers while solving mathematical problems. 15 middle school students with autism and 15 typically developing middle school students participated in this study in which a descriptive relational survey model was used. Three mathematical problems at three different difficulty levels were asked to determine students' use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies in the data collection process. Thinking Aloud Protocols were used to measure the cognitive and metacognitive strategies they used while solving these questions. The data obtained from the application process was analyzed using the SPSS 25 statistical package program. While determining the data analysis method, the Chi-square test was used when performing difference analyzes since the group variable was categorical and the number of strategies used by the students was an ordinal variable. In cases where the expected value in the cross-tables was less than 5, the Fisher Exact test and the Fisher-Freeman-Halton Exact test were used as alternatives, since the number of cells exceeded 20% of the total number of cells. The Fisher Exact test and Fisher-Freeman-Halton Exact test were used as alternatives. This test is a generalization of the Fisher Exact test, which is used in 2x2 tables when the assumptions of Chi-square analysis are not met, for tables of RxC size. A significance level of 0.05 was taken into account in interpreting the results obtained from the statistical tests used in the research. In the sub-steps of cognitive strategy; It was observed that reading and calculation were used most frequently. Although it was observed that students with typical development used the step of expressing in their own words and forming hypotheses more frequently than students with autism, no significant difference was observed. In the use of metacognitive strategies, it was observed that students with autism used the easy questions of the sub-step of asking questions to themselves more frequently than students with normal development, with a slight difference. It was observed that the sub-steps of self-correction, self-instruction and self-monitoring were low in frequency and there was no significant difference. In the discussion and conclusion sections of the study, the findings of the research were discussed in line with the relevant literature, the results were described and suggestions for further research were included.