Elementary School Students' Application of School Mathematics to Daily Life

Abstract

Traditional teaching don't give students chance to implement their knowings to different situations and daily life. So, there becomes a gap between "knowing" and " doing". In the study, the answer of the question of how the third grade elementary students' implementation of school mathematics to daily life were seeked by the help of the assessment instruments. In the study, qualitative research method was conducted to determine how the children implemented school mathematics to real life when opportunities were given. Semi structured interviews were conducted with children where commercial problems took part. As a result of the study, it was found that the students who never implemented school mathematics to daily life acted as using paper and pencil even not had access to them. The other result of the study is that the students who prefered implementing school mathematics to daily life formed practical and situated solutions like calculating with grouping the objects. In addition, while paying, it was seen that children used big amounts of money and made different expressions.