Abstract:

Purpose: The current study aims to examine primary school students’ attitudes towards mathematics lessons in terms of gender, having an individual room, having internet connection at home, having a social media account, family income and parents’ education level. Design/Methodology/Approach: This is a descriptive study that aims to investigate primary school students’ attitudes towards mathematics lessons in terms of various variables, and it employs survey design. Data of the study were collected from 229 students attending fourth grade in primary schools in the central district of Düzce, Turkey in the 2017-2018 academic year. In order to identify primary school students’ attitudes towards mathematics lessons, Scale of Attitudes towards Mathematics, which was developed by Nazlıçiçek and Erktin (2002) and the reliability and validity of which was tested by Aktan (2018) with regard to scale structure, was used in the current study. The data in this study were analyzed with a statistical package program. Findings: The findings of the study reveal that students’ attitude means scores towards mathematics do not differ significantly in terms of gender, having an individual room, having internet connection at home, having a social media account, family income, parents’ education level. With regard to factors of the scale of attitude towards mathematics, there are significant differences in the factors of the scale in terms of having an individual room, having internet connection at home and family income while there are not any significant differences in terms of having a social media account and parents’ education level. Conclusion : Based on the results of the current study, to help students develop positive attitudes towards mathematics lessons, it is recommended that social media should be used to support learning, primary school teachers should offer mathematics lessons in an interesting and fun way, and activities should include games considering the developmental characteristics of primary school students. Besides, families should arrange environments for their children to study efficiently, offer better studying opportunities and they should be guided about efficient studying to raise their awareness.

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