THE SUCCESS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL 4th GRADE STUDENTS IN THE "DIGIT SYSTEM" CONCEPT IN NATURAL NUMBERS

The purpose of the present study was to examine the success of fourth grade primary school students in the “digit system “concept in natural numbers. The research was conducted with a mixed model. A total of 300 students who attended the fourth grades of two primary schools in Elazig city center, Turkey participated in the study. A test that consisted of 28 questions that were developed by examining the relevant literature and the mathematics curriculum of 2018 were used in the study. The reliability of the test was calculated by using the KR-20 formula, and the Reliability Coefficient was calculated to be .885. The data that were collected were analyzed by employing descriptive statistical methods together with the Content Analysis method. The results showed that 4^th grade students had serious difficulties in understanding the “digit system” concept and that they had misconceptions in this respect. The overall success level of the students was found as 58%. The sub-learning area in which students had the highest difficulty levels was determined as “Subtraction in Natural Numbers”, and the sub-learning area in which they were most successful was determined to be “Multiplication in Natural Numbers”. The students reached the correct result at the highest level by using the calculation strategy and at the lowest level by using the estimation strategy. Again, the students had difficulty at the highest level in “writing the numbers given in an unusual way”. Again, according to these findings, the highest mistake type was detected in the questions on the “digit system” (9 different mistakes), and the least error type was detected in the questions about showing the numbers using symbols and models (2 different mistakes). Depending on the results obtained from the study, suggestions were made to better teach the concept of the “digit system”, which can be considered as the basis of mathematics education.