A content analysis for the algebra learning area themed articles published in Turkey

This research aims to review the secondary school algebra learning area themed articles conducted in mathematics education in Turkey within the scope of topic trends and results. The research was designed with the descriptive content analysis method. Totally 156 articles in 124 journals were examined within the scope of the research. The obtained data were subjected to descriptive analysis considering the sub-problems. As a result of the structural analyses of the articles, it was determined that the first secondary school algebra learning area themed article on the topic of mathematics education in Turkey was conducted in 1995; this process that was stopped until 2003, demonstrated an increase after this year. As a result of the analyses of the articles, it was noticed that mostly the algebraic expressions sub-learning area were studied, the case study method was mainly preferred, the pre-service teachers have been the most preferred study group, questionnaires/scales/tests were the most used data collection tool and the descriptive analysis was preferred quite a lot like the data analysis. The topic trends of the articles were noticed to be determining level-situation oriented articles and these were followed by variable studies whose effects were studied, and studies measuring skills and success in algebraic expressions and equality and equation sub-learning areas were mainly focused on. Some results obtained at the end of the article analyses were the algebra achievement performances and algebraic thinking skills of the students were at a low level; that teachers and pre-service teachers were good at determining student mistakes but weak in eliminating them. Nevertheless, it was found that the students had misconceptions and mistakes in the topic of equality and equation; independent variables increased the academic achievement in the studies that were carried out experimentally.