The Effect of Reflective Thinking Activities on Sixth Grade Students’ Attitude towards Mathematics

The aim of this research was to examine the effect of reflective thinking activities on sixth grade students’ attitude towards mathematics. The research has been arranged as the pre- and post-test control group quasi-experimental design. The research participants were composed of 72 sixth grade students. Reflective thinking activities were used in the experimental group. In the control group, mathematics teaching was carried out in accordance with the curriculum of the mathematics course. Dependent and independent samples t-test were used in data analysis, and covariance analysis (ANCOVA) was applied to determine the difference regarding post-tests scores of the groups. According to the results of the data analysis, at the end of the interventions, it seemed that the attitude towards mathematics of the experimental group students were significantly higher than the attitudes of the control group students. Based upon the findings of this study, it can be concluded that reflective thinking activities have a positive effect on students’ attitude towards mathematics. Considering the findings, the researchers have offered suggestions for those who are to perform any other research on reflective thinking activities.