The effect of teaching based on reasoning and processing games on elementary school students' arithmetic processing skills

This study was designed to address the deficiencies in arithmetic operations skills of 4th-grade primary school students. While the results of international assessments such as PISA and TIMSS show that students do not reach the expected level in four operations skills, it is argued that traditional teaching methods are insufficient to overcome these deficiencies. Therefore, there is a need for innovative approaches that are supported by concrete materials and encourage students to actively participate. In this context, this study was planned with the assumption that reasoning and operation games can be an effective method to improve operation skills. The study was conducted with 108 primary school students in experimental and control groups using a quasi-experimental design. In the experimental group, reasoning and operation games were used in mathematics lessons, while the content of the current textbook was applied in the control group. In the data collection process, pretest and posttest measurements were made using the arithmetic operations achievement test. The research data were analyzed with ANOVA test for repeated measures. The study's findings show a significant increase in the arithmetic operation skills of the students in the experimental group compared to the control group. It was determined that 21.5% of the change in the experimental group was due to the implementation process. Research findings suggest that reasoning and operations games should be used more widely in mathematics teaching.