The Investigation of The Concepts Related to SurfaceArea and Volume for Sixth Graders

• Main Authors: Mei-Ling Cheng, 鄭美玲
• Other Authors: Kaung-Hsung Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/cf3hs6

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 數學暨資訊教育學系(含數學教育碩士班) === 103 === This study is aimed to explore elementary school grade 6 students’ performance on surface area and volume related concepts. The questionnaire survey approach was adopted. The study is primarily a quantitative study but it is also supplemented with qualitative data. The researcher first investigated the response patterns given by grade six students and then used semi-structured interviews to collect data for more in-depth qualitative analysis. The results are presented below: In students’ concepts of formulas were examined quantitatively, students’ simple solid volume performance was significantly better than their simple solid surface area performance. As for composite solids, students’ volume performance was also significantly better than their surface area performance. For both surface area and volume, students did significantly better with simple solids than with composite solids. In terms of properties and applications, students’ simple solid volume performance was significantly better than their simple solid surface area performance. Qualitatively, according to students’ response patterns and interview results that students’ errors can be divided into the following types: a lack of understanding of the question, miscalculation, confusing the surface area concept with the volume concept, and a weak spatial ability etc. Lastly, the researcher provides some useful suggestions for other researchers and instructors. Keywords: Surface area, Volume, Error patterns