Determining the number sense strategies used by fourth grade students in primary school to solve natural number problems

The aim of this study is to determine the number sense strategies and problem solving skills of 4th grade primary school students while solving problems requiring four operations with natural numbers and to examine the relationship between them. The study group consisted of 200 4th grade students studying in 4 different primary schools in Yozgat province in the 2021-2022 academic year. A mixed research design was used in the study. A valid and reliable Number Sense Test (NST) suitable for the 4th grade curriculum was developed and applied by the researcher. The SHT contains 12 questions and the questions were revised during the pilot application according to the accuracy of the answers and the students; knowledge of the topics. The analysis of the data obtained from the number sense test was conducted with the SPSS programme. ANOVA and Correlation values were analysed. The study group in the quantitative phase of the research was determined by appropriate sampling method. In the qualitative phase of the study, students at certain number sense and problem solving levels were identified with the data obtained in the quantitative phase and semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine whether they could solve problems in different ways. This study was conducted to reveal the extent to which students use number sense strategies in solving problems requiring four operations in natural numbers, and was based on the assumption that the number of students using number sense strategies may be high. However, as a result of the study, it was observed that the number sense levels of 4th grade primary school students were low. It was observed that most of the students used the rule-based approach while solving problems and made little use of number sense strategies. This study revealed that students who can solve problems also develop number sense strategy to a certain extent. As a result of semi-structured interviews, it was determined that students with low number sense had difficulty in understanding some mathematical concepts and had mathematical misconceptions.