Primary school students' views and challenges on performance task preparation process in mathematics course

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the primary school students' views and challenges on performance task preparation process in terms of mathematic course. The population of this study was 1122 5th and 6th grade students who were attending the public primary schools in central districts (Seyhan and Çukurova) of Adana Province. As for the qualitative data, semi-structured interviewed was carried out with 18 students. Performance Task Scale (PTS) and semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools. Performance Task Scale consists of four factors and 21 items. While the Cronbach Alpha Internal Consistency Coefficients for these four dimensions that explain 52.12% of the total variance were .84, .89, .88 and .81 respectively; it is .82 for whole scale. In the study descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and content analyze were used for analyzing the data. At the end of the research, it was concluded that the performance task preparation process enhance the students' communication, elaboration and investigation skills. Also, students stated that they had difficulty in reaching the necessary sources and having adequate time. For dissolving these problems, it can be suggested that the performance task preparation process should be done according to a schedule; in addition, the teachers should guide the students in terms of using proper resources.