Teaching symmetry through art activities: A practice in primary school 4th grade mathematics lesson

The purpose of this research is to examine how the concept of symmetry in primary school fourth grade students develops through art activities. In this study, which was designed with a qualitative approach, the teaching experiment model was used. The research was carried out with 24 students in a public primary school located in the middle socio-economic region of Eskişehir. Among these students, nine students were determined as the focus participants of the research by criterion sampling, one of the purposeful sampling methods. In the first, third and last week of the 6-week teaching experiment, clinical interviews were held with the focus participants, and in-class practices were carried out with all participants in the other weeks. Research data were collected through observation, clinical interviews, video recordings, student documents, researcher, and student diaries. Content analysis was used in the analysis of the research data. According to the research findings, it was determined that students' ability to understand and apply symmetry improved as a result of teaching symmetry through art activities. It was concluded that students' motivation increased, they valued mathematics lessons, they realized the aesthetic dimension of mathematics, and they associated mathematics and art.