A STUDY ON 8TH GRADE STUDENTS’ EXPLANATIONS OF CONCEPTS OF NUMBER

The purpose of this study is to unearth how the 8th grade students comprehend number, the natural numbers, integers, rational numbers and irrational numbers and the misconceptions that they have already had about those concepts. The sample of the survey consists of 28 8th grade primary school students studying in the province of Bolu in 2010-2011 academic year. Furthermore, by taking expert opinion and pilot implementation, Number Concepts Test has been employed in order to collect data. Having implemented the test; according to their achievements (low, medium, high) in the mathematics course, two students have been selected and later on with those 6 students, an interview has been made to clarify their answers in the test. Thus, the aim is to understand the reasons behind the answers. The data obtained from the interviews have been subjected to content analysis and it is attempted to unearth according to which properties the students include number, the natural numbers, integers, rational numbers and irrational numbers into numbers, natural numbers, integers, rational numbers and irrational numbers.