Examining the Effects of Presented Activities for a Strong Supported Geometry Instruction

Abstract

In this study, based on the expectation of high achievement and the need for strong support from all students in mathematics education, the effect of geometry instruction enriched with various activities on students' Van Hiele Geometric Thinking Levels and spatial abilities was examined. The participants of the present study, in which the weak experimental design was adopted, consisted of 22 students, who passed from the 6th grade to the 7th grade, living in disadvantaged areas in a medium-sized province of Turkey and studying at public schools in those regions. In the research, Van Hiele Geometry Test and Spatial Ability Test were used as pre-test and post-test. In the training given between the pre-test and the post-test, creative drama, digital story writing, origami, geometric construction, GeoGebra, GeoCadabra, SketchUp, educational games, and Small Basic activities were included. While no significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test in the scores obtained from the Van Hiele Geometric Thinking Test. It was determined that there was a significant difference in favour of the post-test in the scores obtained from the Spatial Ability Test. In this test, the effect size value was 0.591, and it was seen that the effect was large. The study emphasizes the positive effects of presenting different types of activities in order to provide strong support in geometry instruction.