Elementary Mathematics Education

This study examines the changes in teaching practices during the implementation of a pedagogical model called the mathematics reasoning approach (MRA), which was founded on 2 critical areas in mathematics, problem solving, and writing to learn. Three algebra teachers implemented the approach with their classes, which were divided into control (traditional) and treatment (student-centered approach) groups, with their levels of implementation measured by the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) instrument. The implementation of the model resulted in positive changes in teachers’ pedagogical practices and yet showed the struggles they faced. In the control classes (traditional classes), the level of teaching remained the same throughout the study, whereas in the treatment classes (MRA classes), a significant improvement in the level of teaching was observed. Even though the teachers’ implementation levels differed from each other, the patterns of the change for all 3 teachers showed similarities; that is, their MRA teaching level was initially equivalent to their control teaching, but as the semester progress, there was a separation between the 2 approaches. This separation between the 2 approaches appeared to be dependent upon the pedagogical area on which the teacher put emphasis. The skill of questioning seemed to be 1 which each teacher first changed.

The purpose of this study was to find answers to the following two questions: What happens
when a teacher follows his students’ alternative ideas in his mathematics classroom? What is the
limit of letting go in a problem solving process? A teacher with 15 years of mathematics teaching
experience tried to modify his pedagogical practices towards an argument-based approach as
part of a professional development project. This paper is a snapshot of a lesson selected from a
number of videos recorded in his classroom when teaching “real numbers unit”. The data were
analyzed using an observation matrix whose bases are creating dialogic interaction, controlling
problem solving process and making connections. The results revealed that the teacher hesitated
to let the students follow their own problem solving process and explain their mathematical
understanding because of his “comfort zone” in traditional way of teaching. This type of
hesitation in changing pedagogy blocks shifting from an algorithmic view of mathematics to the
mathematics as a constructed action.

This arcticle focuses on language and discourse in mathematics. The purpose of this article is not to discuss how to do discourse analysis. Rather, it is to argue the role of discourse and discoursive language in mathematics learning. Based on the class argumentations, it will be structurally outlined how language and discourse in mathematics converge to constitute effective communication. Summary Introduction. The main purpose of this article is to structurally put forward how language and discourse in mathematics converge to construct effective communication. For this aim, the structures of discourse and discoursive language are explained using classroom discussions and their role in learning is argued. Instead of seeing language and discourse as seperate entities, their interactive and evolutive processions have been brought into prominence. Language. People interact and share knowledge via the use of language. Within a cultural and social setting language has a function of scaff...

Students' actions in a mathematical context contain some sort of proving in the forms of justification, explanation , verification, etc. Each form has levels in terms of the quality that adds to mathematical understanding of students. In this study, 58 teacher candidates' problem solving processes were analyzed across time in terms of the level of justification. The key findings from this study were as the use of external justifications decreased over time, that of internal increased especially for the first five weeks and the use of schematic justifications was fluctuated. The findings suggest that through teacher feedback and structured writing with prompted questions, students can develop an awareness of rigorous mathematical justifications over time.

The aim of this study is to draw a framework about the general situation of the studies related to writing-to-learn in mathematics education between the years 2005-2020, by analyzing the studies published in YOK thesis center and the journals indexed by ULAKBIM. A total of 32 researches published in Turkish were examined. The findings showed that most of the published studies about writing-to-learn in mathematics education in 15 years were conducted on the secondary school students and affective dimensions on the basis of research titles. It was determined that the research type was mostly experimental research, the method used was qualitative research method and the data were collected through students' written artifacts. Most of the researches were made on numbers and geometry in terms of the subject of mathematics. In the study, it is recommended that researches on writing-to-learn in mathematics should be increased in general and similar studies should be carried out.

This study aims to determine the forms of perception of the students, who have just qualified for university admission, about the mathematical concepts that they gained during elementary education and secondary education process and to determine their level of readiness about general mathematics lesson. In this regard, the sample of the study is composed of 250 first-year students who study at the Department of Science Teaching and the Department of Mathematics Teaching at Kaz m Karabekir Faculty of Education, Department of Elementary Education at Atatürk University. A test, which is composed of 8 open-ended questions on the definitions and applications of the concepts, has been applied in order to collect data in the research. According to the obtained results, it is observed that the students do not have much difficulty in the definitions of the concepts whereas they have difficulty in the applications and meanings of these concepts.

This study aims to compare the solution methods which are featured in the sources within the literature and the solution method suggested in this research in finding whether or not a number is irrational. As a result of the comparison made between the solution methods featured in the literature and the solution method suggested in this study, it has been concluded that this method is extremely simple, comprehensible and easy to remember.

The aim of this study is to reveal the reasons for students’ fears towards mathematics by teachers’ points of view. Within this purpose, case study that is among qualitative research methods was used in the study. The participants of the study were 39 junior secondary school mathematics teachers working at schools in 2014-2015 academic year and while determining the participants purposive sampling was used. As data collection tool semi-structured questionnaire was used. The data were analyzed based on content analysis and as a result of the data analysis, the reasons for students’ apathy and fears towards mathematics were classified under categories such as environment, teacher, student and course content. As a result of the study, most of the teachers expressed that students have mathematics fears and the reasons for that were concluded to result from students themselves first and then course content, teacher and environmental factors./Yapılan çalışmada öğretmenler açısından öğrenc...

Current educational theories emphasize assessment as a vital part of teaching-learning process. Alternative assessment techniques aim to expose and promote the process of the learning rather than the final outcome. Concept mapping is a technique for representing conceptual knowledge and relationships between concepts in a graphical form. Requiring to construct concept maps encourages learners to organize concepts and the relationships between them in a hierarchical structure. Although constructing concept maps might be difficult in every domain including mathematics and might require extensive domain knowledge, it is essential to employ concept mapping technique in order to reveal learner's conceptual understanding. Hence, asking learners construct their concept maps or to fill missing parts in a pre-designed concept maps might be used as a part of the assessment process. A prototype computer system, called Concept Map Assessor (CMA), is designed to help learners to construct concept maps and to evaluate their performances in pre-designed concept maps. In this study, the basic features and elements of the CMA will be presented and its possible contributions to mathematics education will be discussed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the number sense performance of secondary school students according to grade level, gender and the components of number sense. A descriptive survey design was used to collect data. A total of 576 secondary school students (291 girls and 285 boys) participated in the study. The results revealed that the number sense performance of secondary school students was very low for each grade level. Among the components of number sense, the lowest mean score was observed in multiple representations. Moreover, the number sense performance scores of the students differed significantly in terms of their grade level, though no significant difference was found according to gender. The investigation concluded that the number sense performance of secondary school students is not satisfactory and needs to be improved.

Abstract: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the Van Hiele model based instruction process on the creative thinking levels of 6th grade primary school students. Pre test-post test matching control group quasi-experimental design was used in the study. Fifty five students enrolled in sixth grades during the 2005-2006 educational year formed the sample. The study was carried out with two groups. One of these groups was determined as the experimental group and the other was as the control group. While a teaching based on ...

In this study, we aimed to report the results of the statistical analysis that was performed to determine the beliefs about mathematical problem solving of the mathematics, science and elementary school pre-service teachers and the results of whether gender and the teaching field they studied have any effect on problem solving beliefs. A total of 567 mathematics, science and elementary school pre-service teachers participated in the research. Mathematical Problem Solving Beliefs Instrument applied to these pre-service ...

Özet Bu araştırma matematik, fen bilgisi ve sınıf öğretmeni adaylarının matematiksel okuryazarlığa ilişkin öz-yeterlik inanç düzeylerinin ortaya koyulması amacıyla gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmada öğretmen adaylarının matematiksel okuryazarlığa ilişkin okuryazarlık düzeylerinin öğrenim görmekte oldukları öğretmenlik alanları, sınıf düzeyleri ve cinsiyet açısından değişimi incelenmiştir. Bu amaçla, toplam 571 öğretmen adayına Matematiksel Okuryazarlık hakkında Öz-Yeterlik Ölçeği uygulanmıştır. Bu öğretmen ...

Özet: Son yıllarda matematik eğitiminde var olan değişimlerle birlikte öğrencilerin bilgiyi somut modellerle temsil edildiği öğrenme ortamları ile öğrencinin bizzat keşfederek ve anlayarak öğrenmesi gerekliliği vurgulanmaktadır. Bu durumun gerçekleşmesi için ve matematiksel kavramların daha iyi anlaşılmasının sağlamak için, matematik derslerinde somut materyallerden ve sanal manipülatiflerden yararlanılabilir. Matematik öğretiminde somut materyallerin ve sanal manipülatiflerin etkili olabilmesi için, öğretmenlerin uygun ...

Özet: Günümüzde artık öğrenmeyi etkileyen etmenlerin sadece zihinsel olmadığı, duyuşsal faktörlerin de öğrenme üzerinde önemli rolü olduğu da bilinmektedir. Ayrıca yapılan araştırmalar öğrencilerin akademik başarılarında, kendi öğrenme süreçlerini kontrol ettikleri, özdüzenleme ve motivasyonun öğrencilerin öğrenmesinde etkili olduğunu göstermektedir. Bu bağlamda, bu araştırmanın amacı, ilköğretim 7. sınıf öğrencilerinin özdüzenleme stratejileri ve motivasyonel inançları ile matematiğe yönelik tutumları arasındaki ilişkiyi ...