The Effect of Realistic Mathematics Education on Academic Achievement, Motivation and Retention of Fifth Grade Students

In this study, the effect of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) on fifth grade students’ academic achievement, motivation and retention in "Data Processing" learning domain was investigated. In the research, quasi-experimental design with pre-test post-test control group was used. The research carried out in two secondary schools in the district of Bayat in Afyonkarahisar province in Turkey in the second term of 2018-2019 academic year was conducted with a total of 41 students, 19 of whom were in the experimental group and 22 of whom were in the control group. While the implementations were organized with the RME approach in the experimental group, the control group received instruction in line with the activities included in the Ministry of National Education secondary school mathematics curriculum. In this study, "Evaluation Form of Learning Outputs in Data Processing Learning Domain" and "Mathematical Motivation Scale" were used as data collection tools. The instruments were applied to the experimental and control groups as pre-test, post-test and retention test. As a result of the analysis, there were not any significant differences between achievement, motivation and retention scores of the experimental and control groups.