The effects of concept cartoons on 3rd grade students' mathematics achievements

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of concept cartoons used in 3rd grade primary school mathematics lesson on students' attitudes towards mathematics lesson, math anxiety and mathematics achievement. In the research, the mixed method which was realized by collecting, analyzing and interpreting the quantitative and qualitative data was utilized. In the first stage of the research, concept cartoons were prepared for the "Numbers" and "Measurement" learning areas in the 3rd grade mathematics course. Quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group analysis type was used as the method of experimental analysis to observe and examine the effects of prepared concept cartoons' on 3rd grade primary school students' attitudes towards mathematics, mathematics anxiety and achievement in academics. Work group of research consists of 52 (27 experimental group and 25 control group) 3rd grade primary school students. The first of the scale tools used in the study as pretest and final test "Mathematics Attitude Scale" which was developed by Aşkar (1986) was used for specifying attitudes of students towards mathematics. Second scale type is "Mathematics Anxiety Scale Intended to Primary School Students" presented by Şentürk (2010), was employed for specifying students mathematics anxiety. The last is "Academic Achievement Test", which was developed for this study in consideration of "Numbers" and "Measurement" learning domain. In the research, Mann-Witney U test and t- test methods were used in the analysis of quantitative data for independent samples. In the study, for the qualitative part, students' opinions are obtained with student opinion form about the lecture with concept cartoons. Data of qualitative part are subjected to descriptive analysis. As a result of analyzes of data, It was found that applying concept cartoons in mathematics course had no effect on attitudes of students against mathematics course while it is expected to be positive, had no effect on mathematics anxiety of 3rd grade primary school students, results in a positive effect in success of students academically in mathematics. As a result of the analysis of qualitative data, it was found that students had not seen concept cartoons before, and students had positive opinions about processing courses with concept cartoons, the contribution of concept cartoons to the lecture and utilization of the method of concept cartoons in other branches of lectures. Keywords: Concept cartoon, academic achievement, math anxiety, attitude.