Investigating Seventh-Grade Students’ Slope Preconceptions

Crisólogo Dolores-Flores; Martha Iris Rivera-López; Adán Tlalmanalco-Ramírez

doi:10.29333/ejmste/11417

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Crisólogo Dolores-Flores ¹ ^* , Martha Iris Rivera-López ¹ , Adán Tlalmanalco-Ramírez ¹

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¹ Research Center in Mathematics Education, Faculty of Mathematics, Autonomous University of Guerrero, MEXICO^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This paper reports the results of research in which the objective was to explore the preconceptions of slope in seventh-grade students. Preconceptions are understood as students´ knowledge prior to the formal teaching of a certain concept. For data collection, task-based interviews composed of ten tasks applied to 21 Mexican students were used. The data analysis was carried out using the Thematic Analysis method. Results indicate that the students have several preconceptions in which they consider the slope as any of the following: an intersection with the X or Y-axis, an arithmetic operation, a length, an object, a height, and something to do. These findings pose the challenge of achieving conceptual changes from these preconceptions. In this sense, science education has been the field most exploited in mathematics education; a collaboration between teachers and researchers from both fields could contribute to finding strategies to face this challenge.

Keywords

seventh-grade
slope preconceptions
task-based interviews
thematic analysis

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2021, Volume 17, Issue 12, Article No: em2053

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11417

Publication date: 12 Dec 2021

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Article Downloads: 1159

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Declaration of Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest is declared by author(s).

Data sharing statement: Data supporting the findings and conclusions are available upon request from the corresponding author(s).

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How to cite this article

APA

Dolores-Flores, C., Rivera-López, M. I., & Tlalmanalco-Ramírez, A. (2021). Investigating Seventh-Grade Students’ Slope Preconceptions. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 17(12), em2053. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11417

Vancouver

Dolores-Flores C, Rivera-López MI, Tlalmanalco-Ramírez A. Investigating Seventh-Grade Students’ Slope Preconceptions. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2021;17(12):em2053. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11417

AMA

Dolores-Flores C, Rivera-López MI, Tlalmanalco-Ramírez A. Investigating Seventh-Grade Students’ Slope Preconceptions. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2021;17(12), em2053. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11417

Chicago

Dolores-Flores, Crisólogo, Martha Iris Rivera-López, and Adán Tlalmanalco-Ramírez. "Investigating Seventh-Grade Students’ Slope Preconceptions". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2021 17 no. 12 (2021): em2053. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11417

Harvard

Dolores-Flores, C., Rivera-López, M. I., and Tlalmanalco-Ramírez, A. (2021). Investigating Seventh-Grade Students’ Slope Preconceptions. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 17(12), em2053. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11417

MLA

Dolores-Flores, Crisólogo et al. "Investigating Seventh-Grade Students’ Slope Preconceptions". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 17, no. 12, 2021, em2053. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/11417