Date

2017-04-29

Author

Karacı, Gülzade
Erbaş, Ayhan Kürşat

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The purpose of the current study is to investigate Turkish eight grade students’ difficulties and misconceptionsregarding the notion of a variable. By utilizing survey design, the data will be collected from 100 eight gradestudents attending two different public schools through a diagnostic test developed by Lucariello, Tine, andGanley (2014). Of the 9 multiple choice items, the first three items are about whether the students have anymisunderstanding that a variable can be ignored. The following three items are about students’ misunderstandingthat a variable is a label for an object. Finally, the last three items are about the erroneous understanding ofstudents that a variable is a specific unknown, rather than that it can hold for varying values. By utilizing adescriptive analysis approach, tables showing frequencies of students’ answers will be constructed for differenttypes of misconceptions that the students have. For further analysis of the results, the researcher will conduct aninterview with 10 students regarding their answers. It is expected that the results will reveal some of the mostcommon misconceptions reported in the literature such as “a variable can be ignored, a variable is a label for anobject, and a variable is a specific unknown” that Turkish students in eight grade would also have. The resultswould help to critically examine instructional materials and teaching practices in middle grades and guideteachers in building an instruction to cope with such misconceptions before students are formally introducedwith the concept of functions in nineth grade which requires a solid understanding of the notion of variables. Anahtar Kelimeler : algebra, misconception, variable, middle school students

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/71356

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Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Conference / Seminar