Abstract
In this research, master and doctorate thesis which adopts qualitative method in mathematics education studies in Turkey are thoroughly inspected in terms of their validity and reliability, thus the research has a case study as a research model. From Thesis Web site by Council of Higher Education, 119 master thesis which are published and contains both primary and secondary mathematical studies and 27 doctorate thesis are analysed by using document analysis technique and data is resolved by means of content analysis. It was seen in almost more than half of these theses in which reliability and validity are done, that in addition to the credibility, transmissibility, consistency and confirmability strategies that is used for qualitative paradigm, Statistical calculations are also used in regards of quantitative paradigm. Also, in most of the scale development and adaptation works, language validity technique was not used and in almost half of them, it was observed that strategies such as test works were not employed. In this case, it shows that Reliability and Credibility works remains unfulfilled and awareness of analysis strategies that are caused by scale differences remains low.
Highlights
In this research, master and doctorate thesis which adopts qualitative method in mathematics education studies in Turkey are thoroughly inspected in terms of their validity and reliability, the research has a case study as a research model
Accidental error whose source, direction, size are random and intervenes with assessment results in a random way, poses a different situation compared to the other two and it affects reliability of assessment process and the validity which is one of the qualifications that needs to be present in assessment tools
Reliability, on the other hand, can be described as getting the similar results from the different measurements in which same method is used in different groups that belongs to the same population [4].Validity and reliability works, which shows differences according to the research being qualitative or quantitative, are important factors that should be emphasized meticulously [3]
Summary
The more an assessment is away from accidental errors the more reliable it is [2]. reliability is more related to the data itself that is collected through certain tests, assessments and data collection tools than their content, shape and structure. While performing validity and reliability works, through strategies that is based on statistical calculations, results are generalized Certain strategies such as "credibility" for internal validity, "transferability" for external validity/generalizability, "dependability" for reliability and "confirmability" for objectivity are suggested to be used for qualitative researches on educational field, which focuses presenting a fact or a situation instead of focusing exact and explicit results [10]. In this context, in studies of educational field, different ways are followed that consist validity and reliability evidences. How are the reliability works of post graduate theses on the field of mathematics education in Turkey which are done between 2005 and 2014 and present in the website of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK)?
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