The examination of 6th grade students' proportional reasoning with respect to problem classification and problem number structures

The main purpose of this research is to examine 6th grade students' proportional reasoning problem classifications and whether problem solving success and strategies used during problem solving process change with problem type and number structure of problems. This study is applied on 165 randomly selected students of grade six, in official primary schools of Ministry of National Education in Çukurova, Adana in 2013-2014 education year. A problem test including problems which contain proportional and non-proportional problems is to be applied to students as a data collecting tool for the research. Number structures which involve within, between integer and non-integer relations also considered in the problem test. The sample of the study was divided into two groups. Half of the children first solved the problem test and then did the classification task (SC-condition), while for the others the order was the opposite (CS-condition). Descriptive data analysis methods were used in this study. Analysis taken from the data collecting tool has shown that 6th grade students' problem classification skills are in average level, problem type and problem number structure of problems affect problem solving success and the difficulty level of the problems. Keywords: Problem solving, proportional reasoning, problem classification