Analyzing the meanings that fourth grade elementary school students assign to the four operation symbols and their forms of representation

Abstract

"The aim of this study is to reveal the meanings that fourth grade students in elementary school attach to the four operation symbols (+, -, x, :) that are abstract, in different representations. The pattern of the study is a case study of qualitative research methods. In the study, the evaluation tool developed by the researchers was applied to elementary school fourth grade students. It was tried to present the situations of writing a mathematical sentence and expressing terms, formulating a problem, displaying the problem with a figure/diagram from students related to the symbols (+, -, x, :) for four processing skills. Based on the findings obtained in the study, it is seen that students attach concept and operation meanings to four operation symbols (+, -, x, :), create more routine word story problems related to symbols, and are more successful in writing a mathematical sentence appropriate for the problem they are writing than drawing a figure/diagram. In addition, it can be said that students made mistakes throughout the process from a linguistic point of view in terms of; using punctuations correctly, writing letters, numbers, units and expressions correctly, naming terms, and legible and understandable writing."