Mental Processing Strategies in Primary School Students: The Empty Number Line

The aim of this research is to determine the mental processing strategies used by 3rd grade primary school students in addition and subtraction using the empty number lines. The model of the research is a case study, one of the qualitative research methods. The participants consist of 143 students; 75 girls and 68 boys, attending the third grade (8-years-old). Content analysis method was used in data analysis. Considering the results of the research, the mental strategies used by primary school 3rd-grade students were gathered in four categories: counting, balancing, first process step and partitioning. It was concluded that the students mostly used the mental processing strategy of using "multiples of 10", which is in the first process category, and this strategy was followed by "counting all" and "partitioning the second number", the least used mental processing strategy by the students was "using equivalent numbers".