Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

The purpose of this study was to find out how second, fourth and sixth graders understood the main contents related to spatial sense in the Seventh National Mathematics Curriculum. For this purpose, this study examined students' understanding of the main contents of congruence transformation (slide,...

The purpose of this study was to find out how second, fourth and sixth graders understood the main contents related to spatial sense in the Seventh National Mathematics Curriculum. For this purpose, this study examined students' understanding of the main contents of congruence transformation (slide, flip, turn), mirror symmetry, cubes, congruence and symmetry. An investigation was conducted and the subjects included 483 students. The main results are as follows. First, with regards to congruence transformation, whereas students had high percentages of correct answers on questions concerning slide, they had lower percentages on questions concerning turn. Percentages of correct answers on flip questions had significant differences among the three grades. In addition, most students experienced difficulties in describing the changes of shapes. Second, students understood the fact that the right and the left of an image in a mirror are exchanged, but they had poor overall understanding of mirror symmetry. The more complicated the cubes, the lower percentages of correct answers. Third, students had a good understanding of congruences, but they had difficulties in finding out congruent figures. Lastly, they had a poor understanding of symmetry and, in particular, didn't distinguish a symmetric figure of a line from a symmetric figure of a point.

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