Mathematics learning autonomy of high school students within the framework of self-determination theory: A mixed pattern research

The aim of this research is to develop a mathematics learner autonomy scale that can be applied to high school students, and the relationships between high school students' math learner autonomy levels, math anxiety levels affecting math learner autonomy, motivation levels for learning math, learning responsibility for math course and self-regulation skills in math learning, and the relationships that affect these skills. The aim is to determine the variables and the thoughts of 9th and 12th grade students about mathematics learner autonomy. In the study, sequential-explanatory mixed design from mixed method designs was chosen as the research design. Quantitative data were collected first, followed by qualitative data. In this study, first of all, the mathematics learner autonomy scale was developed. During the development process of the scale, a pool of 144 items was created by examining the relevant literature, and the content validity was checked by taking the opinion of 10 experts. For the validity and reliability studies with the remaining 52 items, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed with data from 1078 students in the pilot application. A 41-item scale with 6 dimensions was created: "Self-Regulation", "Learning Responsibility", "Internal Motivation", "Self-Control", "External Motivation" and "Anxiety".The Cronbach-Alpha coefficient of the scale was found as α=0.82. The total variance explained for the resulting dimensions is 47.50%. The Spearman-Brown correlation value was found to be r=0.83 for the two half reliability levels of the scale. In order to determine whether there is a significant difference between the upper 27% and lower 27% groups, an independent sample t-test was performed and it was observed that there was a significant difference between the scale total scores and the upper 27% and lower 27% groups. As a result of the study, a valid and reliable mathematics learner autonomy scale with 6 sub-dimensions and 41 items was developed for secondary school students. The universe of the main application in the research consists of 9th and 12th grade students in secondary education institutions located in a metropolitan city located in the west of Turkey. After obtaining the necessary permissions, the sample of the study consists of volunteer 9th and 12th grade students, who were sent from classroom Whatsapp groups through the scale teachers prepared in Google Form form, since the education continues remotely. 651 students participated in the research. In the study, the "Mathematics Learner Autonomy Scale" was applied as a data collection tool on a completely voluntary basis. The quantitative data obtained were analyzed with the SPSS 22.0 statistical package program. The normal distribution of the data was checked. Independent Samples t-Test, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Pearson Correlation Analysis were used. The study group of the research consists of eight students from the 9th and 12th grades, each of which has the highest and lowest scores on the mathematics learner autonomy scale. The study group was interviewed and the obtained qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. In order to increase the validity and reliability of the qualitative data, direct quotations were included and the percentage of agreement was calculated. The percentage of agreement with the interview questions in the study was 92.23%. As a result of the research, it was seen that the mathematics learner autonomy levels of the 9th and 12th grade students were moderate. No significant relationship was found between the mathematics learner autonomy level and the gender variable. It was observed that the external motivation level of female students and the internal motivation and anxiety levels of male students were higher. It was seen that the mean scores of the sub-dimensions of self-regulation, internal motivation, external motivation, self-control and learning responsibility of the 9th graders were higher than the 12th grades, and the anxiety sub-dimension mean score of the 12th grades was higher than the 9th grade. There was no significant relationship between class, socio-economic level of the family, education level of the parents, private lesson variables and mathematics learner autonomy. A significant relationship was observed according to the school type variable. There was a strong and significant positive correlation between mathematics learner autonomy and self-regulation skills and learning responsibility, and a weak and positive positive correlation with mathematics anxiety. In the interviews conducted with students with high mathematics learner autonomy scores, they have learning responsibility, self-regulation skills, self-control and high internal motivation, and students with low mathematics learner autonomy scores have low levels of internal motivation, do not have learning responsibility, self-regulation skills and do not have self-regulation skills. were found to be unable to control. It is seen that the findings obtained from the developed Mathematics Learner Autonomy Scale and the findings obtained from the interviews overlap.