Coordinating a Mixture Item Response Theory Model With Middle-Grades Teachers' Reasoning About Fractions

• In Event: Division D Graduate Student in Progress Research Gala

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to coordinate psychometric modeling with reasoning about fraction arithmetic. Recent research has demonstrated the existence of three distinct latent classes in a nationwide sample of in-service middle grades teachers based on psychometric analysis of responses to survey data. The survey focused on four components of reasoning about fraction arithmetic: Referent units, Partitioning and iterating, Appropriateness, and Reversibility. The president study sought to better understand the three classes by interviewing 8 future teachers and comparing to what extent characteristics based on the three latent classes were associated with reasoning evidenced during interviews about fraction arithmetic. The psychometric analysis and qualitative analysis provided consistent results about the reasoning of these future teachers’ facility with fraction arithmetic.

Author

• ibrahim burak olmez, MEF University