Mathematics Teachers’ Opinions on Their Teaching and Reflections from Their Practices under the Renewed High School Transition System (HTS)

This study examines how mathematics teachers teach after the renewed High School Transition System (HTS) central exam, which was implemented in 2018, through teachers' opinions and documents obtained from the teaching environment. The data of this study were collected in the spring semester of the 2022-2023 academic year with ten middle school mathematics teachers who were teachers in public schools in a province and its district located in the Central Black Sea Region. This was qualitative research, and the data sources were semi-structured interviews with teachers, mathematics exam questions for the fall semester of the 8th grade, students' mathematics notebooks, and teachers’ lecture notes, including skill-based questions from the Z-book. The data from the interviews and the documents were analyzed through content analysis. The findings revealed that with the renewed examination system, teachers made changes in their teaching approach to focus on solving more skill-based questions that prepare students for the exam; however, they were still maintaining their traditional teaching approaches. This research suggests that teaching should not only be focused on the exam, but that mathematics teaching activities that will develop higher-level thinking skills compatible with the exam system should be included in the teaching process.