Elementary students' comprehension of place value concept

This study was an attempt to identify to what extent students at primary level in elementary education were able to grasp the Place Value Concept (PVC) and to identify the types of errors of those students not able to grasp PVC. For this purpose, 728 primary school students at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade levels were interviewed. In order to obtain data, semi-structured interview forms were used and each subject was interviewed individually. According to the results obtained, it was observed that the percentage of correct answers for questions related to PVC was low for all grade levels. The higher their levels of success were, the lower their proportion of errors. However, it was observed that all students had difficulties with questions regarding PVC. It was also seen that the difficulties were similar from the point of view of gender.