Reflections of project based and cooperative learning methods on secondary school students' attitudes towards mathematics, mathematics self-efficacy and academic motivation

In this study, it has been investigated whether the project based learning and cooperative learning methods lead to differences in students' attitudes towards mathematics, mathematics self-efficacy and academic motivation or not. The research was carried out using pre-test and post-test group design. Depending on the purpose of the study, typical case sampling method, which is one of the purposive sampling methods, was used. The study was conducted with 16 students from seventh grade in a secondary school in Istanbul in 2017-2018 academic year. In terms of students' attitudes towards mathematics, their mathematics self-efficacy and academic motivation, three identical groups were formed. These groups were assigned randomly while one of them were using project-based learning method, one of the were assigned to use cooperative learning method and the other group to use traditional method. So, the lessons were conducted occurding to these methods. In the research, "Mathematics Attitude Scale", "Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale" and "Academic Motivation Scale" were applied to students as pre-test and post-test. The data collected from them were analyzed by using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks and Kruscal Wallis tests. Additionally, at the end of the study, face-to-face interviews were made with the students from the groups which were assigned to use project-based learning and cooperative learning methods. With these, their views on the applied methods were determined. As a result of the research, it has been determined that there is no statistically significant difference between the attitudes towards mathematics, mathematics self-efficacy and academic motivation of students in the groups where the project-based learning method, cooperative learning method and traditional method are applied. Additionally, it was concluded that project based learning method increased students' interest in mathematics. In the interviews with students in groups where the project-based learning and cooperative learning methods are applied, it is seen that the students have a positive view about the mentioned methods. Additionally, students mentioned that these methods make the lesson fun and they have a contribution to the love of math. So, students are willing to use project-based learning and cooperative learning methods to be applied in other courses.