The effect of activities adapted by using Tess-India open education resources on algebra teaching

Algebra is sometimes a problem-solving material, a language in which we express a situation, and a tool for better thinking. Although algebra is a very important subject that dates back to ancient times, it is also seen in the studies that the difficulties in teaching continue today. At the beginning of these difficulties is the inability of students to understand the concepts of variables and constants. The Tess-India project is a multi-lingual teacher professional development program that includes open, adaptable, freely available practices and Open Education Resources, which is funded by the UK and contributes to the preparation process and will reinforce the classroom practices of primary and secondary school teachers in India. This project includes case studies, reading materials, reflective activities and videos related to Science, Mathematics, English, Language and Literacy education. In this thesis, activities related to algebraic expressions in Tess-India were used for teaching algebra in 6th grade. In order to utilize these activities, the compatibility of our country with the achievements in the mathematics curriculum in 2017-2018 academic year and the conditions of the region where the study will be conducted were examined and necessary changes were made in this direction. This study was designed as an action research based on the problems experienced in the teaching of algebra in the school environment. In the study, experimental design with pre-test and post-test control group was used. The study group consisted of sixth grade students of two different secondary schools in Büyükorhan district of Bursa province in the 2017-2018 academic year. There were a total of 38 students, 19 in the experimental group and 19 in the control group. In the teaching of algebra, the activities in the experimental group were made using Tess-India open educational resources and the mathematics curriculum was used in the control group. In this study, the success of the experimental and control group students in algebra is compared. In addition, students' persistence in learning and changes in mathematical anxiety levels were examined. The experimental group students were found to be more successful than the control group students. According to the applied math anxiety scale, there was no change in the math anxiety levels of the students in both groups. In the retention test performed 8 months later, learning was not permanent in both groups Keywords: Activity Based Teaching, Algebra Teaching, Math Anxiety, Open Educational Resources, Tess-India