Investigating the four basic operations based mathematical problem solving behaviors of primary school hearing-impaired children

The aim of the current research was to examine the relationships between four basicoperations based mathematical problem solving behaviors and student poperties such as levelof hearing loss, duration of hearing aid use, and chronological age in a sample of 19 6. 7. and8. grade hearing impaired students who attend to Ahmet Yesevi Primary School for Hearing-Impaired Children.Two methodological models were administered in this research: First, descriptivemodel for determining the levels of problem solving behavior and problem solving skills;second, correlative model for determining the relationships between problem solvingbehaviors/skills and student properties.The data were collected in an individual study setting by using ?Scale for ProblemSolving Skills?. Answers of the students were scored on Problem Solving Skills AssessmentForm. The content validity of the instrument was based on expert estimation. The method ofthe reliability estimation was inter-rater reliability.The results of the research indicated that hearing-impaired children showed very poorperformance on the behavior of ?checking the correctness of their own operations?; poorperformance on the behaviors of ?drawing a figure or a schema representing the problem?,?estimating the result of the problem?, ?doing the operations for solving the problem andwriting down the solutions?; avarage performance on the behaviors of ?writing down thegiven problem?, ?writing down the requested operations of the problem?, ?summarizing theproblem?, and ?writing down the rules and operations that will help to solve the problem?.The grater levels of language, operation count, and complexity of the problem resulted inpoorer performance. The mean ( X =22.79; criterion score is 100) of the performance of thesample was found to be avarege. Additionally, correlation analysis indicated significantpositive correlation coefficiants between ?the level of problem solving skills and the level ofhearig-loss?, and ?the level of problem solving skills and the duration of hearing aid use?. Nosignificant correlations were found between ?the level of problem solving skills andchronological age?.Depending on the findings of the research, it can be concluded that hearing impairedstudends need more experience on problem solving skills.