Analysis of the graduate thesis which made between 2014-2018 years in mathematics education in Turkey

Education, which is seen as a unit of measure determining the level of development of countries, needs to develop and develop its system in order to perform its functions at all levels of society. Through academic studies in the field of science, new ideas and discussions can be produced to contribute to development. An important part of the academic studies carried out is in the scope of graduate education. The aim of the study prepared in mathematics education between 2014-2018 years in Turkey approved, authorized and examine various sizes of master's and doctoral theses published, to guide future studies evaluating the overall condition of the research is to obtain provider findings. In addition, it is aimed to create references in order to guide future researches in the field of mathematics education by systematically and integrally evaluating the studies conducted in this field. For the screening, 'Mathematics', 'Mathematics Education', 'Algebra', 'Geometry', 'Probability', Statistics 'and' Data Processing 'were used. Theses obtained from YÖK National Thesis Search Database are outside the field of mathematics education, cannot be published due to lack of publication permission form and theses whose accessibility is restricted for a while are excluded from the research. Since the screening was performed with units that meet the specified criteria, purposeful criteria were obtained by sampling method. The descriptive content analysis model was chosen as the research model in order to reveal the general tendency of mathematics education research and to show the similarities and differences between the researches on the subject. The form prepared to obtain the data and the year in which the thesis was published, the university in which it was published, the language of the institute, the institute to which it was affiliated, the type of thesis (master or doctorate), the gender of the author, research method, data collection tools, sample size, sampling method were analyzed and classified in terms of sample type and number of keywords. The findings were discussed in descriptive form as frequency table. As a result of the research, it was found that 174 theses were prepared at the doctoral level and 445 theses at the master's level. 60 of the published theses were written in English and 559 of them were written in Turkish. It was found that 395 of the researchers were female and 223 were male. When the distribution of thesis types by years is examined, it is observed that the number of master's theses published each year is higher than the number of dissertations published. 67 different universities to which the theses belong are determined. When the sample size was examined, it was found that the size was 31-50 in 108 theses, 01-10 in 105 theses and 51-100 in 103 theses. When the institutes where the theses were prepared were examined, it was determined that it was mostly from the Institute of Educational Sciences. Theses belong to a total of 6 different institutes. According to the main branches, the thesis which belongs to the Department of Primary Education was the most common. When the research method is considered, 229 qualitative, 114 quantitative, 163 mixed research were determined. In 95 of these studies, the method was not specified as mixed, qualitative or quantitative. In 231 theses, sampling method is not specified, purposeful sampling method is preferred in most of the theses in which the sampling method is written. Most of the researches were carried out at secondary school level. While the majority of the sample consists of students, there are studies conducted on sources (thesis, exams, books, articles, etc.). When the data collection tools used in the theses were examined, it was observed that the questionnaire, achievement test, attitude scale, semi-structured interview, observation and documents were in the majority. When we look at the number of keywords, it is found that 3, 4 or 5 keywords are generally used. No keywords were used in 23 theses. When the learning areas are examined, it is observed that the number of studies in the cognitive field is higher than the number of studies in other fields. In addition to this, it is seen that, Numbers, Operations and Algebra studies are mostly done in mathematics learning fields.