INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF ASYNCHRONOUS DISCUSSIONS ON STUDENTS‘ LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEMATICS SUBJECTS

Recently, learning activities have gone beyond conventional environments and started to be performed via computer supported instruments. One of these instruments is asynchronous discussion forums (ADFs) used as computer-supported collaborative learning means. Learners practice various learning activities in ADFs and produce knowledge construction. In the present study, document analysis was employed and all Turkish originated ADFs relating mathematics teaching were scanned and put subjected to content analysis. Besides, a survey was implemented on 86 high school and undergraduate students. Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained through this survey. These data were put subjected to qualitative and quantitative data analysis. Attitudes of students towards computer-supported collaborative learning and asynchronous discussion forums as mathematics learning instrument were tried to be revealed via this study. Also, behaviors of the learners and their views relating the learning activities in these environments were evaluated by means of this study. Results of the study demonstrated that asynchronous discussion forums are widely and efficiently used as computer-supported collaborative learning instrument in terms of mathematics learning.