Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to determine the problem solving strategies in mathematics used by the 4th and the 5th grade primary school students and the prediction level of these strategies on problem solving performance. The subjects of the study are 162 fourth and fifthgrade elementary school students. The data of the study were collected using “Mathematics Problem Solving Strategies Scale” developed by researcher and “Problem Solving Achievement Test” developed by Sadık (2006). The results of the study indicated that both the fourth and the fifth-grade students used highly the problem solving strategies and there was a significant difference between the fourth and the fifth-grade students in favor of the fourth-grade students. There was no significant differences between male and female students in terms of problem solving strategies. The problem solving strategies such as reading and understanding the problem and defining the problem in a different way affected the problem solving performance of the students. 

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