An Examination of the Types of Mathematical Reasoning Among Fifth-Grade Students

Here is the shortened English version of the text, keeping the core meaning intact and well under the word limit: In line with the "Century of Türkiye Education Model," which emphasizes mathematical reasoning, this qualitative study examines the reasoning levels of fifth-grade students. Data were collected from 185 fifth-grade students at a public middle school using convenience sampling. Students solved three open-ended questions, followed by semi-structured interviews with selected participants. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The findings revealed significant challenges: 107 students failed to answer any question correctly, while only one student answered all of them correctly. Those who succeeded utilized creative, algorithmic, and memorization-based reasoning. The results showed that most students encountered such questions for the first time, struggled with comprehension, and experienced anxiety about failure. Despite these difficulties, students expressed positive views, noting that regularly solving reasoning-based questions would enhance their cognitive capacity, thinking skills, and mathematics achievement. Consequently, to foster mathematical reasoning, it is recommended that instructional practices and teaching materials place a greater emphasis on questions that require reasoning.