Students? and teachers? perceptions of concept of sets and the way it is covered in the textbooks

In this study, students? and teachers? conceptions of ?Sets?, and the way the concept of sets is covered in Turkish contemporary textbooks are explored. Participants of this study consist of 24 mathematics teachers and 347 students. These participants are from several schools, which are located in eastern and south-eastern regions of Turkey. Participant students in this study are from different levels of education: 56 of the students are from 6th grade, 92 of the students are from 9th grade, 38 of the students are form 12th grade, 126 of the students are the first-year students in the department of elementary mathematics education and 35 of the students are senior students in the department of elementary mathematics education. For the content analysis, 6 mathematics textbooks which are used as course textbooks in elementary, high school and university undergraduate level education are examined. Data for the students? and teachers? perceptions of ?Sets? were collected via a questionnaire consisting open-ended questions. In order to determine students? and teachers? perceptions, the several categories were constructed and analysis was done with respect to these categories. The study showed that not only the students but also the teachers have some difficulties in grasping the concept of ?Sets?. Besides, a strong relation is found between these difficulties and the perceptions about sets. Most of the examples were given as ?collection of things? and using ?set-builder? notation by both teachers and students. This observation is considered an important hint to show the tendency of students and teachers? perceptions. We think that the main reason of students? and teachers? perceptions is the poor presentation of sets in the course textbooks.