An investigation of 10th grade students’ proof schemes in geometry with respect to their cognitive styles and gender

Download

index.pdf

Date

2007

Author

Ören, Duygu

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

253
views

133
downloads

The purpose of the present study is to identify 10th grade students’ use of proof schemes in geometry questions and to investigate the differences in the use of proof schemes with respect to their cognitive style and gender. The sample of the study was 224 tenth grade students from four secondary schools. Of those, 126 participants were female and 98 participants were males. Data was collected at the end of the academic year 2005-2006 through uses of two data collection instruments: Geometry Proof Test (GPT) and Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT). GPT, included eleven open-ended questions on triangle concept, was developed by researcher to investigate students’ use of proof schemes. The proof schemes reported by Harel and Sowder (1998) were used as a framework while categorizing the students’ responses. GEFT developed by Witkin, Oltman, Raskin and Karp (1971) was used to determine cognitive styles of the students as field dependent (FD), field independent (FI) and field mix (FM). To analyze data, descriptive analyses, repeated measure ANOVA with three proof schemes use scores as the dependent variables and a 2 (gender) x 3 (cognitive styles: FD, FM, FI) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with three proof schemes use scores as the dependent variables was employed. The results revealed that students used externally based proof schemes and empirical proof schemes significantly more than analytical proof schemes. Furthermore, females used empirical proof schemes significantly more than the males. Moreover, field dependent students used externally based proof schemes in GPT significantly more than field independent students. Also, field independent students use analytical proof schemes significantly more than field dependent mix students. There was no significant interaction between gender and cognitive style in the use of proof schemes. The significant differences in students’ use of proof schemes with respect to their gender and FDI cognitive style connote that gender and FDI cognitive styles are important individual differences and should be taken into consideration as instructional variables, while teaching and engaging in proof in geometry and in mathematics.

Subject Keywords

Elementary or Public School Education., Secondary Education.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12609109/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/17400

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Investigation of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about using concrete models in teaching mathematics Pişkin, Mutlu; Çakıroğlu, Erdinç; Bulut, Safure; Department of Educational Sciences (2010) The main purpose of the study was to investigate pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ personal efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies about using concrete models in teaching mathematics. Data were collected from the pre-service teachers in the middle of the spring semester of 2008-2009. Pre-service teachers were junior students enrolled in elementary mathematics teaching program at a public university. Six instructional sessions based on using concrete models in teaching mathematics were carried ...
A study on preservice elementary mathematics teachers' mathematical problem solving beliefs Kayan, Fatma; Çakıroğlu, Erdinç; Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education (2007) This study analyzes the kinds of beliefs pre-service elementary mathematics teachers hold about mathematical problem solving, and investigates whether, or not, gender and university attended have any significant effect on their problem solving beliefs. The sample of the present study consisted of 244 senior undergraduate students studying in Elementary Mathematics Teacher Education programs at 5 different universities located in Ankara, Bolu, and Samsun. Data were collected in spring semester of 2005-2006 a...
The effect of problem-based learning on the elementary students' achievement in genetics Araz, Gülsüm; Sungur, Semra; Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education (2007) The purpose of the study is to investigate the relative effect of problem-based learning (PBL) and traditionally designed science instruction (TDSI) on students’ academic achievement and performance skills in the unit of genetics after controlling for students’ prior knowledge, prior performance skills, reasoning ability, and learning approach. The sample consisted of 192 eight grade students from a public elementary school in Ankara. Four classes instructed by two science teachers were randomly assigned as...
The effect of instruction with concrete models on eighth grade students' probability achievement and attitudes toward probability Yağcı, Fatmagül; Bulut, Safure; Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education (2010) The main purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of instruction with concrete models on eighth grade students’ probability achievement and attitudes toward probability. Another aim was to examine students’ views about instruction with concrete models. The study was conducted in a private school in a big city in Central Anatolia Region with 12 eighth grade students. Both quantitative and qualitative research designs were used. The treatment was applied by the mathematics teacher for 4 hours per we...
Investigation of self-regulated learning and motivational beliefs in mathematics achievement Ergöz, Gülnur; Bulut, Safure; Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education (2008) The purposes of this study are to investigate how mathematics achievement can be explained in terms of motivational beliefs (intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control and learning beliefs, self efficacy for learning and performance and test anxiety), self-regulated learning components (cognitive strategy use and self-regulation), gender and school types and to determine the differences between two gender (girls and boys) and two school types (public schools and private scho...

Citation Formats

D. Ören, “An investigation of 10th grade students’ proof schemes in geometry with respect to their cognitive styles and gender,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2007.