Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Student Team Achievement Division (STAD), Team Assisted Individualization (TAI), and Team Game Tournament (TGT) techniques on the academic achievement of seventh grade students in algebra learning, their attitudes toward the mathematics course, and on their critical thinking skills. The study is experimental by design with a control group and pre- and post-tests, and for six weeks the experiment group was instructed using the STAD, TAI, and TGT techniques, and the control group was instructed using the traditional teaching method. The sample which was formed, using convenience sampling consists of 154 students in 4 different classes of an elementary school (STAD: 37, TAI: 42, TGT: 37, and traditional method: 38). For data collection Algebra Achievement Test, Scale of Attitudes towards Mathematics Course, and Critical Thinking Skills Test were administered to both groups as pre- and post-tests. As a result of the data analysis done, by using multi-variance of covariance (MANCOVA), it was found that for academic achievement and attitude towards mathematics, the TAI and TGT techniques were more effective than the traditional method. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference in favor of TAI was found between the TAI and STAD techniques on students’ critical thinking skills scores.