Examination of the Mathematical Language Used by Primary School Fourth Grade Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the mathematical language of fourth-grade students. A nested multiple case design was used in the study. The study participants are 150 fourth-grade students (86 girls and 64 boys) attending three different primary schools in the same school district in Altınordu district of Ordu in 2016–2017 school year. The data were collected using the Mathematical Language Use Inventory. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to evaluate the data at hand. Based on the quantitative analysis, the students were divided into the following three groups: low, medium, and high-level students. These groups were used as the sub-themes in the analysis of the qualitative data. Descriptive analysis was used to evaluate the qualitative data. Evaluations and comparisons were made on the status of the low, medium, and high-level students in terms of the use of mathematical language. The findings of the evaluations and comparisons on the low, medium, and high-level students revealed that the use of mathematical language varied from student to student.

Keywords

• Mathematical language
• problem solving
• problem posing

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