Examination of the primary school mathematics curriculum according to 21st century skills

Abstract

Keywords: Primary school; Mathematics curriculum; 21st century skills.

1. What is the distribution of 21st century skills across the

grade levels in terms of the objectives set in the 2018 Primary Mathematics Curriculum (1st-4th grades)?

2. What is the distribution of 21st century skills across the

learning areas in terms of the objectives set in the 2018 Primary Mathematics Curriculum (1st-4th grades)?

Method

The current study employed document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods. Document analysis includes the analysis of written materials containing information about the phenomenon or phenomena being researched (Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2016). The objectives set in the 2018 Primary School Mathematics Curriculum ((1st-4th grades) constituted the documents of the current study. These objectives were examined on the basis of a literature review and 21st century skills. The collected data were analyzed by using the descriptive analysis method. In descriptive analysis, the data obtained are summarized and interpreted in line with the previously determined themes (Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2016). The themes that emerged in the analysis process are creative thinking, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, cooperation, flexibility and adaptability, entrepreneurship and self-management, social and intercultural, productivity and accountability, leadership and responsibility, information literacy, media literacy and information and communication technologies literacy. In the study, a total of 229 objectives in the curriculum were examined according to 12 skills. The objectives were examined by three researchers in line with the 21st century skills, then the researchers came together in a virtual environment to discuss their codings and the reliability value between the coders was determined to be 94.5% according to Miles and Huberman (1994).

Results

Since orientations in curriculums both differentiate and increase the skills that need to be developed in students, a great emphasis is put on 21st century skills in curriculums (Gültekin, 2014). At this point, it was aimed to examine

the Primary School Mathematics Curriculum in line with the themes of “Life and Career Skills”, “Learning and Innovation Skills”, “Knowledge, Media and Technology Skills” within the framework of P21 (2009). In the study, firstly, the distribution of the objectives in the Primary School Mathematics Curriculum across the grade levels according to the 21st century skills was examined. It was concluded that while the greatest emphasis is put on learning and innovative skills in the Primary School Mathematics Curriculum, they are followed by life and career skills. Among the objectives in the curriculum examined, no objectives related to information, media and technology skills were found. Moreover, there is no objective regarding cooperation skills in the curriculum. When the objectives that can be grouped under life and career skills were examined, it was revealed that the objectives most emphasized are related to productivity and accountability, followed by those related to flexibility and adaptability. In relation to 21st century skills, the highest number of objectives was found to be in the learning area of measurement, followed by the objectives in the learning areas of numbers and operations and geometry and data processing. When the distribution of the objectives across the grade levels was examined, it was seen that the highest number of objectives are related to learning and innovation skills at all the grade levels and in terms of the sub-themes, the highest number of objectives was found to be related to critical thinking and problem solving skills while the lowest number of objectives was found to be related to creative thinking skills. It was seen that while there are no objectives related to life and career skills in the first grade, there are in the second, third and fourth grades. Flexibility and adaptability skills, which are among life and career skills, are addressed by some of the objectives set for second and third graders while productivity and accountability skills are addressed by some of the objectives set for second, third and fourth graders in the curriculum. In addition, it was seen that there is no objective related to entrepreneurship and self-management, social and intercultural, leadership and responsibility skills gathered under life and career skills.

Discussion

In the study, firstly, the distribution of the objectives set in the Primary School Mathematics Curriculum across the grade levels according to 21st century skills was examined. The findings obtained in this regard are also supported by Belet Boyacı and Güner Özer (2019), who concluded that

Yıldız Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 6, Issue. 2, pp. 95–105, December, 2021

there are objectives related to learning and innovation skills and life and career skills in the Turkish Course Curriculum. Barası and Erdamar (2021), in their study, in which they examined the 2018 Secondary School Turkish Language Curriculum in terms of 21st century skills, based on the opinions of teachers, found that the most frequently mentioned skills were communication skills, followed by cooperation, decision making, social and intercultural interaction skills, while accountability skill was the least mentioned skill in the curriculum. In addition, at the end of the study, in which the fifth grade mathematics curriculum was examined in terms of 21st century skills, no objective was found in the curriculum related to “learning to learn”, “taking initiative and entrepreneurship”, “communication” and “productivity” skills and it was found that the number of objectives related to “problem solving”, “critical thinking”, “creativity”, “ICT literacy”, “social and cultural skills and citizenship” and “cooperation” is inadequate (Vural, 2019). It is seen that these studies and the current study have reached similar findings. When the distribution of the objectives in the curriculum across the grade levels were examined according to 21st century skills, it was seen that 21st century skills are not addressed adequately and equally across the grade levels in the curriculum. However, 21st century skills should be taught within a context of specific content and each of

which should be given equal importance (Rotherham and Willingham, 2009). According to Vural (2019), the mathematics curriculum generally focuses on the “Mathematical Competence” skill, but not equal place is allocated to all skills. When Bal (2018) evaluated the objectives separately in the Turkish Language Curriculum in terms of basic language skills on the basis of 21st century skills, he concluded that they were associated with skills in the dimensions of reading, writing and listening, but that there was no certain ratio considered in their distribution.

Conclusion

In light of the findings obtained in the current study, the following suggestions can be made: • In the process of curriculum renewal, all the skills can be included in such a way that equal place is allocated to them. • As a requirement of today’s conditions, it can be ensured that the objectives related to the use of information, media and technology in the curriculum can be more concrete instead of being included in the curriculum under competencies. • Studies can be carried out to determine the opinions and suggestions of primary teachers as the implementers of the curriculum on this issue.

References

1. What is the distribution of 21st century skills across the the 21st century skills was examined. It was concluded that grade levels in terms of the objectives set in the 2018 while the greatest emphasis is put on learning and innova- Primary Mathematics Curriculum (1st-4th grades)? tive skills in the Primary School Mathematics Curriculum,

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