A Study on the Relationship between Reflective Thinking Skills towards Problem Solving and Attitudes towards Mathematics

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the 7th and 8th grade students’ reflective thinking skills towards problem solving and their attitudes towards mathematics. In addition, during the research, whether there is a significant difference between the male and female students’ reflective thinking skills towards problem solving and their attitudes towards mathematics has been analyzed. The study has been conducted with 300 students studying in the 7th and 8th grades in two private schools in Cankaya, Ankara. In the study “Reflective Thinking Skills towards Problem Solving Scale” (Kızılkaya & Askar, 2009) and “Mathematics Attitude Scale” (Onal, 2013) have been used. In order to determine the levels of students in terms of reflective thinking skills towards problem solving and their attitudes towards mathematics, the arithmetic mean and standard deviation values of the scores obtained via the scales have been calculated and to find out if there is a significant difference between these scores regarding gender, MANOVA has been used. Whether there is a significant difference between the scores of male and female students has been tested by using the scores the students got in total and in the sub-dimensions of the scales. It is found that there does not exist a significant difference between the students’ reflective thinking skills towards problem solving and their gender. However, there is a significant difference in favor of the male students in terms of their attitudes towards mathematics. There is a moderate significant difference between the students’ reflective thinking skills towards problem solving and their attitudes towards mathematics in the positive sense.