An Analysis of Informal Concepts of Average Found in Fifth and Sixth Graders

5, 6학년 학생들의 대표값에 대한 비형식적 개념 분석

The purpose of this study is to investigate how fifth and sixth graders recognize average and to find out suggestions for teaching/learning methods of average by examining which difference there is depending on the way of the word problem presentation. For the this purpose, was conducted experiment study with the way of the world problem presentation set up as experimental treatment. The conclusions drawn from the results obtained in the this study were as follows : First, since students who did not learn the regular course of average had various informal concepts already, it is needed to consider handling more various concepts of average in order to enable students to expand flexible thoughts. Second, compared with fifth and sixth graders showed a wide difference in informal concepts of average depending on the way of the word problem presentation. In expect data with given average, concepts of mean as algorithm, balance point, and mode indicated similar percentage, while in estimate average with given data, the percentage of students who showed the concept of mean was very high at 67.6%. That may be because problems related to mean in the current textbooks are items of 'estimate average with given data', so in types of 'estimate average with given data', students solve questions with mean as algorithm without considering situations of problems. This result suggests that it is necessary to diversify the way of the word problem presentation even in textbooks. Third, as a result of analyzing informal concepts of average, there was significant difference in grades. In addition, the results suggested that there would be difference in the concepts of average depending on gender or attributes of discrete quantity and continuous quantity.