Analyzing middle school students' of abilities fraction understanding

The aim of this study is to examine the comprehension skills of secondary school students with regard to fractions in terms of the specified comprehension levels and find out about the changes in distinct variables.This study was carried out on the students who are in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades in the secondary schools in the provincial centre of Afyonkarahisar, which aresubordinate to the Ministry of Education, in the academic year of 2015-2016. In the first stage of the study, a pilot scheme was performed on 59 students to devise a test. The final test was devised through descriptive analyses by having clinical interview with 9 students and making use of the views of experts. The data were obtained in two sessions held with 575 students during the actual implementation process and these data were analysed with the statistics software of SPSS 22.00. As a result of the study, we have observed that each student has a different comprehension skill level from the average value in understanding each fraction type. This indicates that each skill is individually and integrally important for the concept of fractions. Although there wasn't a significant difference between the students' fraction comprehension skills in terms of their gender and grades, a significant difference was observed in their mathematical achievement scores. It was demonstrate that as the academic success of the students increase, so do their comprehension skills of fractions.It is thought that the results of this study will contribute to the teaching of fractions within the secondary school mathematics curriculum as well as the mathematics curriculum of elementary schools. Key Words: Fractions, fraction comprehension skills, secondary school students