A MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING PERCEPTION SCALE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS: A VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY STUDY

Abstract

Determining students' perceptions of problem-solving is an important step to improve their mathematical problem-solving skills. For this reason, the aim of this study was to develop a scale to determine secondary school students’ perceptions of mathematical problem solving. In the study conducted in a basic research model, a scale application, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The sample of the study consisted of 325 secondary school students. Validity and reliability analyses were made with the data obtained on the sample. Five sub-dimensions of the scale were determined through exploratory factor analysis. Confirmatory factor analyses were performed for these 5 sub-dimensions, and the fit indices were found to range from acceptable to excellent. The explained variance of the “Mathematical Problem-Solving Perception Scale” was 66.15%, and the Cronbach alpha value for the whole scale was .93. It was concluded that the scale would reveal the perception levels of secondary school students towards mathematical problem solving in a valid and reliable way. Keywords: mathematics, perception, problem solving, scale development, secondary school students