Thematic Content Analysis of Graduate Studies on K-12 Numbers: A Meta-Synthesis Study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the contents, measured features and results of graduate theses conducted at preschool, primary, secondary and high school levels on numbers in mathematics education. The research consists of 136 theses that were accessed by scanning using the keyword "numbers" in the database of the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education between 1987-2023. The research is a meta-synthesis study and content analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data and descriptive statistics were used in the presentation. According to the findings of the research, it has been determined that the most studied number sets trend is rational numbers. It has been observed that the least studied set of numbers is complex numbers. It was observed that the studies were mostly at the secondary school level. When the studies conducted at the K-12 level are examined, it is seen that the studies are mostly carried out to investigate the effects of new methods and approaches on the teaching process and the result that new approaches and methods are more successful than traditional methods are concentrated. Another result obtained from the research was the abundance of misconceptions and errors, and the inadequacy of student skills and the need for improvement. In order to contribute to the field in the research, it is recommended to increase the studies carried out in the pre-school period, where concrete concepts are gained to support the development of abstract concepts in the studies on numbers, and to carry out various studies to correct misconceptions and errors, especially in high school studies, starting from the pre-school period to the end of high school.