Identifying students' mathematical and mathematics educational values in Turkish culture: a cross-sectional study (Identificacion de los valores matematicos y de la didactica matematica de los estudiantes en la cultura turca: un estudio transversal)

This cross-sectional study investigates mathematical and mathematics educational values of students across grade levels in Turkey. The sample of the study consisted of 970 students, including 511 fifth-grade and 459 ninth-grade students who received education in seven geographical regions of Turkey which were determined via a proportional stratified random sampling method. The data of the study were obtained with a bipolar scale developed within the scope of the What I Find Important [WIFI] (in maths learning) project. The results revealed a statistically significant difference in the value pairs of process-product, pleasure-hardship, application-computation, facts-ideas, exposition-exploration, recalling-creating, rationalism-objectism, whereas results revealed no statistically significant difference in terms of value pairs of ability-effort, openness-mystery and control-progress. Additionally, it was determined that at the end of middle school, the pleasure-hardship value pair evolved into hardship value, the application-computation value pair evolved into computation value and finally the exposition-exploration value pair evolved into exposition value.