Mathematical Misunderstandings and their Causes in Fourth Grade Elementary School Students Based on the Lived Experiences of Farhangian University Graduates: (A Qualitative study)

Subject Areas : Research in Curriculum Planning

Sareh  Haghkhah ¹ (Sareh Haghkhah, Assistant Professor, Department of Grade Science, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.)
Azar  Davoodi ² (Azar Davoodi, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.)
َAmeneh  Amiri ³ (Ameneh Amiri, Graduated of primary education, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.)

Received: 2021-04-04 Accepted : 2021-11-06 Published : 2021-11-22

Keywords: graduates of Farhangia University, fourth grade elementary, mathematical misunderstanding, living experiences,

Abstract :

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of new teachers in the field of recognizing and dealing with the mathematical misunderstandings and their causes in the fourth grade elementary school students. This research was qualitative with a phenomenological approach. The participants were 10 teachers who were graduated from Fars Farhangian University and had experiences of teaching mathematics in the fourth grade of elementary, which were selected by a purposive sampling for interview until the data were saturated. The data collection method was in-depth semi-structured interview. The thematic analysis method was used to analyze the data. The findings showed that, 111 basic themes, 19 organizing themes and 2 comprehensive themes were formed under the title of mathematical misunderstandings and their causes. By analyzing the extracted themes, it can be realized that the participants had a relatively good knowledge of mathematical misunderstandings. They considered the heavy content of the fourth grade mathematics textbook and its incompatibility with the cognitive development of the students and the lack of time to present the concepts as the most important causes of mathematical misunderstandings in this grade. Therefore, by reviewing the content of the fourth- grade mathematics textbook, it can be expected that a more appropriate platform for the mathematic teaching _learning process and preventing misunderstandings should be provided.

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