Investigating level of mathematics knowledge for students attending vocational schools in Turkey

Abstract

Students attend mathematics courses in Turkey for totally 11 years, throughout education life ranging from primary school to university, including eight years in primary education and three years in secondary education (four years based on new arrangement); however, level of mathematic knowledge of students is upsetting when they reach university education. Students attend various schools including normal high school, Anatolian high school, and science high school, and most students may leverage mathematics knowledge both in ordinary high school education and private teaching institution; however, mathematics skills and knowledge of students, who attend vocational high schools, could not be sufficiently improved. In many departments of vocational high schools, mathematics course is available only in the first education year of high school, and later, most vocational courses are emphasized. Those students are not well-educated in the field of mathematics and when they graduate from vocational high schools and they start to attend vocational colleges, they also take mathematics courses and they fail even in principal mathematics courses. Moreover, students perceive vocational colleges as a step towards four-year faculty education after they take ETE (external transfer examination). In current study, 275 students who had mathematics courses from the same teacher and attended various departments of a private charity university, were subjected to mathematics examination which was compiled from ETEs of previous years, and thus, level of mathematics knowledge of students was investigated. Findings of current study indicated that level of mathematics knowledge for students attending vocational colleges is upsetting.