An Investigation of Sixth Grade Students' Skills of Solving and Posing Problems Which Require Using the Knowledge of Order of Operations

Source abstract

The aim of this research is to examine sixth grade students’ skills of solving and posing problems which require using the knowledge of the order of operations to solve. The case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was adopted in the research. The study group consisted of 44 sixth grade students attending a public secondary school in Eskisehir. Within the scope of the application, the forms including the questions to measure their problem solving and posing skills were directed to the study group. The data were analyzed by thematic analysis method. According to the results obtained, it was found that while most of the students were successful in solving problems which require the knowledge of the order of operations, they were not successful in posing such type of problems. In addition, it was found that students made mistakes in Turkish language grammar and expressions and in using the mathematical language. Students made mathematical terminology mistakes generally in subtraction and division operations. As a result, it is recommended to increase the problem posing and order of operations activities in mathematics lessons.