Assessing Students’ Understanding of Average Through Problem Posing: A Focus on the Impact of Prompts

• In Event: Exploring Various Teaching and Learning Methods of Mathematics Topics

Abstract

This study investigates fifth-grade students’ understanding of arithmetic averaging through problem posing and examines the impact of different prompts on students’ problem posing. Four problem tasks involving arithmetic average were used. A total of 524 students completed one of three versions of the tasks, each using a different prompt. Results indicate students demonstrated procedural and conceptual understanding, whereas statistical understanding was largely absent except in one of the tasks. Different prompts influence the types of problems students pose. The study highlights the feasibility and importance of problem posing not only as an assessment tool but as an instructional approach to foster students’ understanding of arithmetic average.

Authors

• Jinfa Cai, University of Delaware

• Jia Pang, Yangzhou University

• suanrong Chen, Yangzhou University