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Middle School Students' Understanding of Number Sense Related to Percent
Author(s) -
Gay A. Susan,
Aichele Douglas B.
Publication year - 1997
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.1949-8594.1997.tb17337.x
Subject(s) - number sense , mathematics education , set (abstract data type) , variety (cybernetics) , test (biology) , multiple choice , psychology , grade level , range (aeronautics) , mathematics , statistics , computer science , significant difference , paleontology , materials science , composite material , biology , programming language
This study examined middle school students' understanding of percent, focusing on number sense. Participants in the study were 106 seventh‐grade and 93 eighth‐grade students. Students were given a written test that included 21 multiple‐choice questions and an open‐ended item. Research interviews were conducted with 28 selected students. Students performed better interpreting a quantity expressed as a percent given a pictorial continuous region than when a pictorial discrete set of circles was given. Students had difficulty interpreting a quantity expressed as a percent of a number. The strategies used by students to make comparisons about percents represent a wide range of correct and incorrect approaches to the questions. In addition to the use of 50% and 100% as common reference points, students successfully applied fractional relationships, estimation and mental computation to make comparisons. A variety of inappropriate strategies which included computational procedures and numerical comparisons were also employed, some of which resulted in the correct multiple‐choice response.