The use of mathematical games to improve students' affective awareness in primary school mathematics teaching

In this research, the effects of the use of mathematical games on the attitudes and metaphorical perceptions of 4th grade students towards mathematics lesson were investigated. Mixed pattern was used in the research. In this direction, qualitative methods was carried out in the first phase of the research. By holding semi-structured interviews with primary school teachers, their opinions about mathematical games were revealed. In the second stage, the effect of using mathematical games on student's attitudes towards mathematics lesson and their metaphorical perceptions were examined. In this direction, experimental study was carried out and the mathematics course attitude sample and metaphorical perception form developed by Baykul (1990) were applied as pre-test and post-test. At this stage of research, the pattern has been determined as mixed pattern. Statistical analysis was performed to determine whether there was a significant difference in the evaluation of the obtained data, Shapiro-Wilk test, Wilcoxon test and Mann-Whitney U test were applied. In the third stage, the students'views on the mathematics lesson using mathematical games were taken for the second, fourth and last week. Opinions of students were taken by face to face, unconfigured interviews. According to the findings obtained from the research, the primary school teachers have general knowledge about mathematical games and they consider the use of games in lessons as necessary and useful. At the end of the study, the students in the experimental group had increased their mean scores of mathematics attitude but this increase was not statistically significant, there was no significant difference between the attitude point averages of the students in the control group as well. When the images of the metaphorical perception forms which were formed by the students examined after their pre-test and post -test comparison. It was understood that the students in the experimental groups differed positively in favor of post test. In the direction of the opinions taken from the students, it was seen that the implemented applications changes the views of the students towards the mathematics lesson positively. Key Words: Primary school grade 4, Mathematics education, Mathematical games, Attitude, Metaphorical perception.