Understanding the Arithmetic Mean: A Study with Secondary and University Students

In this paper we present a cognitive developmental analysis of the arithmetic mean concept. This analysis leads us to a hierarchical classification at different levels of understanding of the responses of 227 students to a questionnaire which combines open-ended and multiple-choice questions. The SOLO theoretical framework is used for this analysis and we find five levels of students' responses. These responses confirm different types of difficulties encountered by students regarding their conceptualization of the arithmetic mean. Also we have observed that there are no significant differences between secondary school and university students' responses.