The first of the events planned to be held for the interaction of faculty members and mathematics teachers under the title of "100th Anniversary Mathematics Education Days" in cooperation with Kastamonu University Faculty of Education and Kastamonu Provincial Directorate of National Education, which is the external stakeholder of our Faculty, was held on Thursday, November 30 with the main theme of "Numbers".
The panel, which constituted the opening and first part of the event, was hosted by Kastamonu Provincial Directorate of National Education. Dean of the Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kaçar, Kastamonu Provincial Director of National Education Hasan Gümüş, faculty members of the Department of Mathematics Education of our Faculty and mathematics teachers working in secondary schools in Kastamonu Central district attended the panel.
In his opening speeches; Head of the Department of Mathematics Education and Panel Moderator Prof. Dr. Lütfi İncikabı stated that "This panel has an important place in terms of the joint work of our University and the Directorate of National Education, and that he believes that the experience sharing of expert faculty members working in the field of mathematics education and teachers working in schools will contribute to the increase in mathematics achievement in our province and will continue with workshops, ateliers, etc. after today."
In his speech, Kastamonu Provincial National Education Branch Manager Vedat Terlemez stated that they are pleased to host this activity organized in cooperation with the Faculty of Education and that they would like to continue the collaborative work with new activities.
Kastamonu Provincial Director of National Education Hasan Gümüş said in his speech: "Mathematics, which improves our problem-solving ability and strengthens our analytical thinking skills, appears in every aspect of our daily lives. Therefore, understanding the basic principles of mathematics is very valuable."
Dean of the Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kaçar talked about the history of our faculty, teacher training and teaching programs. He emphasized that the Faculty of Education attaches importance to educational and socially responsible projects as well as educational activities and academic endeavors. In this sense, he stated that the Faculty is happy to be a stakeholder of this joint event, which has value in terms of updating the knowledge of the teacher while working and graduate control."
In the panel, which started under the moderation of Prof. Dr. Lütfi İncikabı, firstly Assist. Prof. Müjdat Takıcak made a presentation on "History of Numbers". In his presentation, Takıcak talked about the changes in numbers from 35000 BC to the present day, the differences of the symbols in which numbers are expressed according to civilizations, the first use of zero as a number and the formation of today's number systems as a result of the interaction of civilizations with each other.
In the second session of the panel, which started after a short break, Assist. Prof. Feyza Aliustaoğlu and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Koray Serin made a presentation on "Misconceptions in the Learning Area of Numbers and Operations".
Aliustaoğlu talked about the similarities and differences between mathematical difficulty, error and misconception and emphasized the types and causes of misconceptions using examples. He also expressed his ideas on how to teach to overcome these misconceptions. Serin, on the other hand, gave examples of possible misconceptions that may be experienced in the transition from primary school to middle school on numbers and operations. In particular, he visualized the misconceptions about understanding the place value and presented preventive teaching materials for them.
In the last session of the panels, Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Kepceoğlu and Assoc. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Kepceoğlu and Lecturer Musa Sadak made a presentation on "The Place and Importance of Numbers and Operations Learning Area in National and International Exams". Sadak talked about the contents of TIMSS and PISA exams, which are international exams for middle school students. Using the data of the TIMSS 2015 exam, he presented findings on the state of mathematics teaching in Turkey. Kepceoğlu, on the other hand, showed sample questions on numbers and operations in PISA and TIMSS exams and mentioned the differences of these questions with the transition exams to secondary education in our country.
In the second part of the event, workshops for secondary school mathematics teachers were hosted by our Faculty. On Thursday, November 30, between 14:00 and 17:00, four workshops, three of them simultaneously, were held in the Faculty of Education building.
Among these workshops, the "Real-life based number problems" workshop introduced the real-life based learning approach. In the workshop, teachers were asked to construct real life problems in various contexts and these problems were discussed with all teachers.
In the "Creative Activities in Mathematics" workshop, mathematics teachers were first presented with examples of mathematical creativity and how to support it. Then, participating teachers prepared activity plans to support mathematical creativity in their classrooms with group work and the prepared activities were discussed in terms of mathematical creativity.
In the "Differentiation with Mathematical Modeling" workshop, what mathematical modeling activities are was introduced. It was discussed why mathematical modeling activities can be used as a differentiation strategy. Then, a sample activity on the application of mathematical modeling activities was given and participants were encouraged to produce different solutions for the activity. Finally, participants' solutions and gifted students' responses to the problem were presented and these responses were discussed on the basis of mathematical creativity.
In the last workshop, "Constructing the Concept of Number with Examples from the History of Mathematics", the importance of transferring the history of mathematics to classroom activities was emphasized. Examples of transferring the history of mathematics to the classroom in foreign mathematics education resources and examples of transferring selected examples from the history of mathematics to the classroom in the learning domain of "numbers" were shared.
