An investigation of middle school students' conceptual understanding process of circle in flipped classroom approaches with the 5E inquiry model

The aim of this research is to examine the conceptual understanding processes of middle school students in a flipped classroom supported by dynamic geometry software and integrated with the 5E inquiry model. The participants of the research are 18 students who continue their education in the seventh grade. Teaching experiment method, which was one of the qualitative research methods, was adopted in the research. Mathematical tasks developed by the researcher, clinical interviews made in the teaching departments, students' dynamic geometry software files, screen and audio recordings taken during the intervention process, researcher and observer notes were used as data collection tools. The data obtained on students' conceptual understanding processes were analyzed with discourse analysis within the framework of Duval's theory of registers of semiotic representation. Analysis of the data showed that students made treatment (verbal-verbal, numerical-numerical, algebraic-algebraic, drawing-drawing and visual-visual) and conversion (verbal-numerical-visual-drawing-algebraic) for circle. In addition, paper-pencil tasks encouraged students to use the dynamic geometry software. Thus, students were provided with the opportunity to use different representation systems related to the mathematical concept. It was seen that this situation supported students to make treatment and conversion. Based on the findings of the research, it was concluded that the flipped classroom supported by dynamic geometry software and integrated with the 5E inquiry model allowed students to understand the concepts of circle. In this direction, it was recommended to use flipped classroom supported by dynamic geometry software and integrated with the interrogative 5E inquiry model to support students' conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts.