Examining the Effect of Teaching with Ethnomathematics on Students' Problem-Solving Skills on Transformation Geometry

Abstract

The aim of the research is to examine the effect of teaching with ethnomathematics on students' problem-solving skills in transformation geometry and their skills in problem-solving steps. The study was carried out with an experimental design, one of the quantitative research methods. The sample was determined as 42 eighth-grade students in two classes using the purposive sampling method. One of these classes was randomly assigned as the experimental group and the other as the control group. In the research where the "Problem-Solving Test (PST)" developed by the researchers was used as a data collection tool, the "Problem-Solving Skill Scoring Key" put forward by Baki (2006) was used in the analysis of the data. According to this key, student responses were graded and the results were noted for the data analysis phase. The results obtained were analyzed with the SPSS20 package program. At the end of the study, it was seen that teaching using ethnomathematics elements improved students' skills in the steps of understanding the problem, preparing a plan, and implementing the plan. The instruction did not have a significant effect on student skills at the evaluation stage. At the same time, teaching using ethnomathematical elements increased students' problem-solving skills and solution skills in daily life problems and traditional problems. In this context, it is recommended to integrate cultural elements into the secondary school mathematics curriculum, and in this way, it is thought that it can contribute to the development of students' problem-solving skills.