Examination of mathematics themed children's stories and children's popular science books in terms of mathematics philosophy

This study was conducted with the aim of analyzing children's storybooks and children's popular science books with mathematical themes at the elementary education level from the perspective of the philosophy of mathematics. The study, which is of a qualitative research type, employed the document analysis method. The criteria for selecting the books were that they should be designed for elementary school students, have mathematical themes and belong to the genres of children's stories and children's popular science books. After examining the websites of 42 publishing houses a total of 44 books were selected as the sample for the study. The books were coded alphabetically as K-1, K-2, ... K-44 and analyzed using the Mathematics Philosophy Book Coding List developed by the researcher. The coding list, which was developed using the seven questions identified by Reuben Hersh in his 1995 article "Fresh Breezes in the Philosophy of Mathematics" published in The American Mathematical Monthly consists of six themes. These themes are; mathematics and other disciplines/humanities, mathematics and knowledge, mathematics and universality, mathematics and independence, mathematics and infinity, and mathematics and everyday life. Each book was re-examined three times over different months. According to the results obtained through descriptive analysis, 21 out of the 44 books contained elements of the philosophy of mathematics, and the total number of elements was found to be 120. In both children's storybooks and children's popular science books, the theme most frequently associated with the philosophy of mathematics was the relationship between mathematics and other humanities. The children's popular science books contained more elements of the philosophy of mathematics than the children's storybooks. Nine elements of the philosophy of mathematics, which could not be exclusively associated with any specific theme, were identified. In the children's storybooks examined, at least one element associated with each theme was found, indicating that the elements allowed for the contemplation or answering of the seven questions identified by Hersh (1995). Based on the results of the study recommendations were made. Keywords: Mathematics philosophy, children's stories books, children's popular science books.