Understanding graphs – does metacognitive questioning help students develop and refine their mathematical ideas?

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Thinking skills
Mathematics

How did the intervention affect students' mathematical understanding?

The findings showed that students who had been instructed in metacognitive questioning:

had fewer misconceptions when tested after the intervention; and
showed greater improvements in interpreting and in constructing graphs

than did those students who had not received the intervention. There was no difference between the two samples in relation to conceptual understanding before the study began.

Specifically the results demonstrated that students in the intervention group improved their understanding relative to the control sample in two ways:

they were less confused between height and slope; and
a higher proportion of the students read graphs continuously rather than as a series of points.

On the other hand there was little change in either sample in the tendency of some students (about 25% in each case) to assume graphs always showed positive relationships. In addition, the number of students treating graphs as 'icons' fell equally for both samples by about the same amount - from about 20% of each sample to about 10%.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What sorts of conceptual problems did the students have? How did the intervention affect students' mathematical understanding? What was classroom discourse like and how did it differ between the two samples? What classroom activities did the intervention involve? What questions were used to foster metacognition? How was the study designed and carried out? What are the implications of this work? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader Understanding graphs – does metacognitive questioning help students develop and refine their mathematical ideas? This digest found in Thinking skills Mathematics Send to a friend Word doc 80KB Printer friendly Collate for later How did the intervention affect students' mathematical understanding? The findings showed that students who had been instructed in metacognitive questioning: had fewer misconceptions when tested after the intervention; and showed greater improvements in interpreting and in constructing graphs than did those students who had not received the intervention. There was no difference between the two samples in relation to conceptual understanding before the study began. Specifically the results demonstrated that students in the intervention group improved their understanding relative to the control sample in two ways: they were less confused between height and slope; and a higher proportion of the students read graphs continuously rather than as a series of points. On the other hand there was little change in either sample in the tendency of some students (about 25% in each case) to assume graphs always showed positive relationships. In addition, the number of students treating graphs as 'icons' fell equally for both samples by about the same amount - from about 20% of each sample to about 10%.