The Influences of Parents’ Socio-Economic Status on Third Graders’ Academic Achievement in Fraction

• Main Authors: Zhi-Yang Jiang, 江志揚
• Other Authors: Yu-Liang Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/60436911787670715685

碩士 === 明道大學 === 教學藝術研究所 === 97 === Abstract Parents’ socio-economic status had a critical influence on the investment in their children’s education, which led to children’s academic achievement. Fraction was a fundamental unit in mathematics. Domestic researchers found that children tended to hold misconceptions about fraction. These misconceptions might result in students’ ineffective learning. Accordingly, the purposes of this study were to examine the impact of parents’ socio-economic status on third graders’ academic achievement and possible misconceptions in fraction, especially for those with the low socio-economic background. Based on the scope of primary schools and numbers of class, a stratified random sampling strategy was applied to select samples from all third graders in Changhua County. After teaching the fraction unit, a “Third Graders’ Fraction Achievement Test” was administered associated with the Socio-economic Status Scale, which collected 1,124 effective responses. Statistical analyses, e.g. one-way ANOVA, were then executed by using SPSS to answer the research questions. Furthermore, 279 students from low socio-economic family were identified in order to analyze possible misconception types. According to data analyses, findings were reported as followings: 1. There were statistically significant differences in the academic achievement among third graders’ with various socio-economic backgrounds. There was also a significantly positive correlation between parents’ socio-economic background and their students’ academic achievement. 2. Students’ learning achievement was positively correlated with parents’ educational background. 3. Parents’ professions had significantly positive correlation with students’ learning in fraction. 4. There was a significant dissimilarity in low socio-economic students’ academic achievement in fraction as their parents’ educational background varied. A significantly positive correlation was discovered between the low socio economic group’s parental educational background and their students’ performance. 5. In the low socio-economic group, parents’ professions did not lead to significant discrepancy in their students’ academic achievement. 6. The misconceptions that students with low socio-economic status held about fraction included: definition of numerator and denominator, reading method, failure in considering whether each part was equal after division except the integer part, confusing one half with half, mistaking or overlooking units; when comparing fractions, the numerators being equal, the one with the greater denominator was greater; if the denominators were equal, the greater the numerator, the smaller the value; proper fractions were greater than “1”; “1” was greater than improper fractions; denominators were added in addition and subtracted in subtraction; when subtracting a proper fraction from “1”, the denominator was “0”; and students were affected by continuous minus signs while processing subtraction. Finally, discussions were provided based on findings. Recommendations were also proposed for improving students’ learning in fraction in the future.