Investigation of seventh-grade students' performance in translating among multiple representations of fractions

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate seventh-grade students’ performance in translating among multiple representations of fractions (symbolic, linguistic/verbal, visual, realistic). The participants consisted of 243 seventh-grade students (12–13 years old) from a public middle school in western Türkiye. Data were collected via the multiple representation translation instrument for fractions, which consisted of fifteen written response questions. The students' responses to the questions were scored according to the rubric. The data were analyzed via SPSS 17.0 with descriptive statistics, Friedman's test and the Wilcoxon signed rank test. The results of the study indicated that students' translation performance differed significantly among the multiple representations of fractions. The area models were used significantly more often than the set, length, and volume models for the visualization of fractions. Students performed significantly better in translating the symbolic-visual representations of fractions than in translating the linguistic-visual and realistic-visual representations. Compared with the length and volume models, the students performed better in translating from the area and set models of fractions to symbolic, linguistic, and realistic representations.