Investigation of teog, lgs and timss mathematics questions according to mathematics teaching program outcomes, TIMSS cognitive areas and math taxonomy

This study was carried out in order to classify and evaluate mathematics questions in TEOG, LGS and TIMSS for grade 8 according to mathematics curriculum (TIM), TIMSS cognitive areas and MATH taxonomy groups and categories. For this purpose, document analysis method was used as data collection methods. The data of this descriptive study was 80 mathematics questions in the TEOG exams applied to 8th grade students in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years, 20 mathematics questions asked in the central exam conducted in the LGS in 2018 and 79 mathematics questions asked in TIMSS-2011, and 15 mathematical questions explained in TIMSS-2015. In order to examine the research data, 5-8th grade mathematics teaching program gains, TIMSS cognitive domain coding scheme, MATH taxonomy coding scheme and document analysis matrix with percentage and frequency values developed by the researcher were used. The questions that constitute the study data were analyzed by two experts according to mathematics teaching program outcomes, TIMSS cognitive fields and MATH taxonomy. The results of the study revealed that; TEOG and LGS exam questions included grade 8 teaching program outcomes, while TIMSS questions included the grades 5, 6, 7 and mainly grade 8 teaching program outcomes. In terms of cognitive area, TEOG, LGS and TIMSS questions were found to be the most common application. While there were more questions in the TIMSS exams, there were fewer questions in the TEOG and LGS exams. According to the MATH taxonomy, while most questions were asked from A3-routine operations, in TEOG examinations few questions were asked from B and C groups. LGS and TIMSS exams gived higher place to B and C groups that require high-level thinking skills. Group C questions were mostly placed in TIMSS exams.