We have applied a mathematics interest survey on our students as Babaeski Atatürk Middle School. Result of the survey has shown us that %85 of our students don’t like mathematics. They think that it is not only hard but also so abstract to understand so they are afraid of this subject. We have understood through our talks with students that the reasons why they have prejudgments on mathematics are; abstract characteristic of mathematics, boring and outdated education methods, negative feedbacks form the upper class students and their own parents. Therefore most of them got these prejudgements before they began to their education lives. This negative situation causes not only low academic performance but also they leave the school before they graduated. As a result it also increase the rate of unemployment. In that case we are interest in using modern methods which support activity of students with using more present techniques, daily life activities and concrete materials to resolve the problem. In this sense we want to realize this project to identify our shortcomings, to correct errors, to overcome the prejudice and also to teach values and culture of European Union. We believe in the ideas of our student about European Union will improve via this project. We will complete this project with the cooperation of our partners from Turkey, Poland and Romania. We aim to overcome the prejudice of mathematic via educational games which enabling them to play with their classmates including the students of different countries. These games will take the education form classrooms to actual life. We aim to be a more modern educational institution after the elimination of fear and negative prejudices against the course which will be consist of allowing students to develop their skills in mathematics. In the process of our project there are games and methods as drama, puzzles, photo contest, mathematics newspaper preparation, cartoon contest, cake making, Orienteering Mountain games etc. All of this games and methods will be organized by the teachers of the three countries. In this way the students will learn mathematics in their daily life with much more easy and permanent ways that they will like and have fun. We aim to break down prejudice and fear they have developed towards mathematics lesson by using all methods and techniques of the constructivist education system as well as the needs of our students in the process duration of the project. We expect that not only the chosen 30 students but also all of our and our partner’s students will be affected in a positive way by this dramatization and student-centered teaching methods and techniques. At the same time we will share our positive experiments first as local then national and after that in international platforms.
In the questionnaires conducted by our school consultants, 80% of our students found the Mathematics lessons boring, 75% said they did not know what they would do with what they learn in life and that they found it unnecessary and 60% said they were afraid of the lessons. Following these results, in the interest surveys applied to our students by our school consultants, 85% of our students expressed that they did not like this course, they found it frightening and abstract. We have shown that this is usually learned from the elders, the parents, and has a negative impact on the students' academic achievement. In our school, we know that mathematics is full of abstract concepts. By making the students take parts actively in classes, by using concrete materials, by using outdoor activities mostly, by using games and activities which students may correlate Maths with daily life, we wanted to put into practice a process of education that students overcome their fear or negative attitude towards Maths. In order to determine our insufficiencies, to resolve the mistakes made by different views, recognize European union values and to develop positive course of actions towards these values and above all, in order to share experience, we wanted to carry out this project with foreign partners. We included two partners in the project: one from Poland (Niepubliczne Gimnazjum "Keglik") and the other from Romania (Scoala Gimnaziale "Ion Creanga"). Another thing that we paid attention in the partnership was that the curriculum of our partner schools included the selected topics in the project. "Keglik" developed teaching materials in mathematics education and had a lot of experience in Erasmus + projects. One of our project goals was to make it easier for teachers to develop educational material in the field of mathematics education. Both schools are dynamic and innovative schools that have successful students nationwide in the field of Mathematics. Throughout the project, two teacher and three student mobilities were carried out. At the end of our project; Our teachers developed an alternative to traditional classroom teaching methods, which will attract the attention of students. Our parents are aware of the prejudices and using frightening language about mathematics lessons that negatively affects their students. Negative attitudes of our students towards the Mathematics lesson and the fear towards the Mathematics lesson decreased. Our teachers collaborated with the teachers of different countries to design games and drama so improved their linguistic skills. A positive change has been observed in the success criteria of our school administrators. Teachers from different branches of our school came together to develop new teaching methods by cooperation. Multiple intelligence theory methods were applied to create a school environment in which our students could be directed to mathematics lessons in according to their abilities. Our students have been given the opportunity to improve their math skills by sharing information with their peers in our school and partner schools. Our students are more successful in Maths examinations. Our teachers had the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with colleagues in Europe. The linguistic skills of our students have improved. The the negative attitudes of our students towards the mathematics lesson decreased. Our students have increased self-confidence. Our students' use of information and communication technologies has increased. We have increased the confidence that our parents have about our school. In the following years; We will add our learning by games activities to our schools' plans. Activities such as cartoon exhibition, Pi day festivities, cake making using recipes containing fractional numbers, learning through drama will be held every year and included in the annual plans of our teachers. Math games Olympics and Pi day celebrations will be become traditional in our school. Students will be encouraged to continue publishing our math magazine. Drama texts and costumes prepared during project will be available for further use. The prime number tree will continue to be used as teaching material by our new students since it will be permanent in our school. The mathematics and intelligence games workshop created in the project process will be available for further use.