Investigation of middle school students' use of multiple representations in the implementation process of mathematical model eliciting activities: 7th grade example

The aim of this study is to examine the multiple representations used by 7th grade secondary school students in the application process of mathematical modeling activities, the diversity of representations used and the transformations of representation that occur when using these representations. The type of research is a case study, that is one of the qualitative research methods. The research was conducted with 12 seventh grade students selected by easily accessible case sampling method in a secondary school in the Eastern Anatolia region. The data was collected through 4 mathematical model building activities, semi-structured focus group interview questions and researcher field observation notes, and content analysis was conducted in line with the problems of the research. In the content analysis, the representations used by the students were coded as verbal representation, numerical representation, table representation, figural representation, algebraic representation, graphic representation and symbolic representation. As a result of the research, while students mostly used verbal and numerical representations, they used all representations except graphic representation in almost all activity processes. The students were unsuccessful in terms of transformation between representations. Keywords: Multiple Representations, Mathematical Modeling, Model Building Activity.