Altıncı ve yedinci sınıf öğrencilerinin interaktif simülasyonlarla desteklenmiş orantısal problemleri çözme stratejileri

The general aim of this study was to investigate sixth and seventh-grade students' strategies in solving proportional problems supported with interactive simulations. In this respect, the first aim was to investigate how sixth and seventh-grade students classify proportional problems. The second aim was to examine the strategies that sixth and seventh-grade students employ while solving proportional problems supported with interactive simulations and determine which levels these strategies correspond to on The Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) Ratio and Proportion Progression (Petit et al., 2020). The third purpose was to investigate the role of the numerical structure of the problems (i.e., integer ratio, non-integer ratio, letters) on students' selection of strategies in solving problems supported with interactive simulations. The data were collected from seven sixth graders and seven seventh graders during the June-July period of 2021. Interviews were held online via the Zoom platform. Each interview was recorded and transcribed for analysis. Findings revealed that sixth and seventh-grade pupils classify proportional problems based on problems' contextual aspects, problems' nature, and the words that sounded reminiscent of each other. In addition, one seventh-grade student focused on the interrogative word of the question in the problem. Moreover, among all the strategies proposed in The OGAP Ratio and Proportion Framework, only three of them were observed among students' answers, either as a single strategy or multiple strategies. Non-proportional strategies were primarily used in the non-integer ratio numerical structure. Early ratio strategy was employed only on the first question, and lastly, the use of proportional strategies was seen almost in each question. When the multiple strategies of the students were examined, it was found that all the multiple strategies started from a lower level and moved to a higher level. In addition, among all question types, the use of multiple strategies was not observed only in problems involving letters.