Seventh graders’ strategies for shading the percentages of geometric shapes

Abstract

This study aims to examine the strategies developed by 7th grade students while shading different percentages of geometric shapes. The study was carried out with 113 7th graders studying at a state middle school in a province of Turkey. The data were gathered using the Shading Percentage Test, which consisted of seven tasks. Data analysis employed descriptive statistics and each task was evaluated separately. Analysis suggested that participants showed the lowest performance in the task in which they were asked to shade 20% of a circle, while they showed the highest performance in the task of shading 50% of a rectangle, which is often included in schools. The results underline the importance of giving students practice in shading unusual percentages of different geometric shapes. Performing similar tasks frequently in learning environments can create an obstacle for students to think differently. The present study also provides evidence that the strategies developed by the students varied depending on the geometric shape and the percentage to be shaded.

Basic mathematical skills and fraction understanding predict percentage understanding: Evidence from an intelligent tutoring system

“…However, surprisingly few studies thus far examined the learning of percentages as another format of rational numbers (but see: Erdem et al, 2021;Gay & Aichele, 1997;Guiler, 1946bGuiler, , 1946aLembke & Reys, 1994;Parker & Leinhardt, 1995). This seems surprising as recent research repeatedly indicated fraction understanding to robustly predict not only later mathematical achievement (Bailey et al, 2012;Barbieri et al, 2021;Booth & Newton, 2012;Siegler et al, 2012), but also academic and life prospects more generally (Duncan et al, 2007;Murnane et al, 1995;National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008;Ritchie & Bates, 2015;Rivera-Batiz, 1992).…”

“…Tian and Siegler (2018) reviewed existing research on rational numbers and reported that the vast majority of studies on rational numbers considered fraction understanding, with only a few studies considering decimals and hardly any research considering percentages (Gay & Aichele, 1997;Guiler, 1946bGuiler, , 1946aLembke & Reys, 1994). These studies typically examined students' overall difficulties when processing percentages (Gay & Aichele, 1997;Guiler, 1946bGuiler, , 1946a and strategies on how students solve tasks including percentages (Erdem et al, 2021;Lembke & Reys, 1994). Importantly, the existing studies on the processing of percentages were not longitudinal and thus did not allow to identify predictors of processing percentages.…”