Analysis of proportional reasoning strateiges of rural middle school students in material-assisted problem solving process

The purpose of this research is to investigate the proportional reasoning process of students in rural areas. Therefore case study model, which is one of the qualitative research technique, was used in this research. 12 students who study in different grades in a village middle school, situated in Gazipaşa district of Antalya, participated in the research during the 2017-2018 educational year. Clinical interview form was used as a data collection tool in the research. Clinical interviews were made with 12 students who are in different levels. In these interviews various problems were given to the students and wanted them to solve these problems both by using materials and without using any materials and to explain the solutions. When the data which was obtained from the achievement test was analysed, it was observed that the students who did not use any concrete materials used emotional responding and neglected data, additive method, equivalent fractions, ratios and unit rates and cross multiplication strategies. On the other hand, students who used concrete materials used emotional responding, equivalent fractions and ratios and unit rates strategies. According to the results, it was found out that ratios and unit rates strategies are the mostly used strategy. It was also observed that students who used concrete materials while solving problems gave up the wrong methods they used before and preferred the strategies like unit rates and equivalent fractions.