Date

2022-4

Author

Arıcan, Burcu

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the modeling process of 6th grade students in the fermi problems, considering the proximity of the problem context to students’ daily lives. The data were collected from 12 sixth students from public middle schools in different cities in Turkey. In this multiple-case study design, a selection test was applied to 20 students for selecting the case participants. Students' models and explanations were analyzed, and 12 students were selected and formed six groups based on their performances on the test as high achievers, medium achievers, and low achievers. This study involved two cases and cases were bounded by the order of the Fermi Problems asked. More specifically, Case 1 involved Fermi problems given in the order of close problem context first and remote problem contexts next, and Case 2 included Fermi problems given in the order of remote problem context first and closer problem contexts next. One group of sixth grade students from each performance category was placed in each of the two cases during the data collection. In other words, there were three groups at different achievement level in each case. Semi-structured clinical interviews with groups were carried out. Students’ solution strategies were analyzed and compared with one another. Furthermore, researcher generated models were constructed based on students’ ways of solutions. Result of this study showed that the problems presented in a closer context to students' lives led to more detailed solutions because they could reconcile problems closer to their daily lives with the information they obtained from daily life. On the other hand, a noteworthy difference was not observed between Case 1 and Case 2. In other words, the order of the problems, whether it is from close problem context to remote problem context (Case 1) or from remote problem context to close problem context (Case 2) did not lead to an observable difference on sixth grade students’ way of solution. This indicated that teachers do not need to create a lesson plan by ordering the problems from close problem context to remote problem context in the studies they will do with Fermi problems.

Subject Keywords

Fermi problems, Mathematical modeling, Students’ modeling performances, Context of the problem

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/97332

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis