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Expanding Students' Conceptions of the Arithmetic Mean
Author(s) -
Meyer Ruth Ann,
Browning Christine,
Channell Dwayne
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
school science and mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1949-8594
pISSN - 0036-6803
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-8594.1995.tb15741.x
Subject(s) - arithmetic , mathematics education , set (abstract data type) , sequence (biology) , concept learning , mathematics , mental arithmetic , computer science , algebra over a field , pure mathematics , programming language , genetics , biology , medicine , heart rate , radiology , blood pressure
The arithmetic mean is the most commonly used measure of central tendancy; nevertheless, many students who can add all the elements of a data set and then divide that sum by the number of elements do not truly understand the concept of mean. This article presents four activities designed to help elementary and middle school students develop a concept of mean. To bring about a desirable level of understanding, all computational formulae and algorithms in mathematics should be preceded by experience emphasizing conceptual understanding. Since that is not the normal instructional sequence for the arithmetic mean, the activities presented in the article assume previous exposure to the computational algorithm for the arithmetic mean.