An examination of primary school mathematics teaching in Turkey based on NCTM principles and standards

The purpose of this study is to provide a review of primary school mathematics education in Turkey on the basis of NCTM principles and standards. The problem of the study is to examine the NCTM principles of Equity, Curriculum, Teaching, Learning, Assessment, and Technology and the participating teachers' approaches to the components of these principles in primary mathematics classrooms. For the presence of NCTM principles in the teaching environment, interviews were conducted with 21 classroom teachers using a Basic Qualitative Research design. The interviews were conducted with the semi-structured interview form "Primary School Mathematics Education Teaching Process and Teacher Approaches" developed by the researcher. In the light of the results obtained in the study, it was determined that the primary school mathematics education process does not have the principles of Equity, Teaching, Learning and Evaluation, and that the Technology principle is mostly involved in the teaching process. It was found that classroom teachers did not implement differentiated instruction within the framework of the Equity principle and took a more passive role in their professional development. Within the framework of the Teaching and Learning Principle, it was determined that they did not have extraordinary practices and their teaching environments were far from being argumentation and participation based. Within the scope of the Evaluation Principle, it was concluded that they were not at the expected level in terms of using process-based assessment and alternative assessment and evaluation methods, did not include individualized assessment and evaluation processes for disadvantaged students, and did not use self- and peer assessment and rubrics.