Percentages examining the effect of teaching the sub-learning field by associating it with real life on 5th grade students' mathematics achievement, learning permanence and attitudes towards mathematics

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of teaching percentages sub-field by associating it with real life on 5th grade students' mathematics achievement, learning retention and attitudes towards mathematics. In this regard, the "Mixed Research Model" was adopted in the research, in which both quantitative and qualitative methods were used together. The sample of the research consists of a total of 68 fifth grade students, 34 of whom are the experimental group and 34 of whom are the control group, studying at a public school in the city center of the Central Black Sea Region, determined by the easily accessible sampling method. When determining the groups, it was aimed to select two homogeneous classes with equivalent achievement levels. For this reason, an achievement test was applied by the school at the beginning of the year to all 5th graders of the middle school where the application was made, consisting of eight branches, and branches were created according to the results. Two classes with the closest averages and no significant difference between their average success scores were selected from these branches. One of the selected classes formed the control group with impartial assignment, and the other formed the experimental group. While a teaching method associated with real life was applied to the experimental group of these two groups for four weeks, a traditional teaching method in accordance with the textbook-based curriculum was applied to the control group. To determine whether the experimental and control groups were equivalent in terms of attitude, the Mathematics Attitude Scale (MTS) developed by Önal (2013) was applied as a pre-test and it was determined that there was no significant difference in terms of attitude between the two groups. Percentages Achievement Test prepared by the researcher, Student Interview Form, Parent Interview Form and Attitude Scale towards Mathematics developed by Önal (2013) were used as data collection tools. Data were analyzed using t-Test for Independent Samples and Single Factor Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for Repeated Measures. Qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. The findings are as follows: Teaching by associating it with real life was effective in increasing students' academic success. Additionally, this teaching method increased the permanence of the information learned. In addition, it has created a significant change in the development of positive attitudes towards mathematics.