Investigation of 6th grade elementary school student's interpretation of algebraic expressions in scratch enviroment

Algebra has been accepted as the most difficult area in school mathematics. Research shows that in learning algebra, the problems that students experience in understanding the abstract concepts of algebra can be overcome thanks to the concrete environment offered by programming. Algorithms positively contribute to students' algebraic and algorithmic thinking skills. In the 2024 Turkish Century Education Model mathematics curriculum, the inclusion of algorithms for the first time in the teaching of algebraic expressions can be considered as an indicator of both the potential of algorithms in algebra teaching and the approach to new algorithm-based learning methods in the education system. In this study, the processes of students in the transition period from arithmetic to algebra to make sense of algebraic expressions with an instruction based on algorithms in Scratch were examined. The first phase of a three-stage teaching experiment, consisted of the introduction of the Scratch; the second phase consisted of the creation of algebraic expressions through Scratch-based activities; and the third phase consisted of problem solving activities on algebraic expressions with Scratch. Research was carried out with 15 students in the 6th grade of a state secondary school in Eskişehir. Data were collected from students' Scratch project files, voice recordings, observations and clinical interviews. Data analysis was carried out by thematic analysis, one of the qualitative research methods. As a result of the study, it was observed that students could easily make the transition between verbal expressions, Scratch code sequence and algebraic expressions, especially through calculation algorithms, and that the use of Scratch code blocks in algorithms created to solve problems supported the process of understanding the concepts of unknown and variable in algebraic expressions.