Students' Improper Proportional Reasoning: A result of the epistemological obstacle of “linearity”

By M. Modestou, Athanasios Gagatsis. 2007

79 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The aim of the present study is to provide further evidence that the errors that arise from improper application of the linear model are not random and not easy to overcome. Using three different types of test, we attempt to show that the errors referred to in the literature as “pseudo‐analogous” are the result of an epistemological obstacle—“linearity”. The results of this study reveal that students' erroneous application of proportional reasoning in non‐proportional problem situations is not a random phenomenon. On the contrary, this phenomenon resists, persists, and reappears regardless of students' grade and of the tests' settings. This is evidence that pseudo‐analogous errors result from the epistemological obstacle of linearity.

Subfields: Education, Statistics and Probability

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/17073f6c446653ead3bfde5ad3c3aa875723a4b2

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Citations in the corpus

The development of students’ use of additive and proportional methods along primary and secondary school (2012, background): “As shown in previous research, a characteristic of this development is students’ difficulty to discriminate multiplicative from additive situations (De Bock et al. 2007; Fernández et al. 2008; Modestou and Gagatsis 2007; Van Dooren et al. 2005, 2008).”
Cognitive and Metacognitive Aspects of Proportional Reasoning (2010, background): “However, recent research on the illusion of linearity ( De Bock, Verschaffel, & Janssens, 1998 ; Modestou & Gagatsis, 2007 ; Van Dooren, De Bock, Vleugels, & Verschaffel, this issue) suggests that this typical approach of proportional reasoning is not accompanied with understanding of the concept o”
Development and application of a two-tier diagnostic instrument to assess middle-years students’ proportional reasoning (2013, background): “Modestou and Gagatsis (2007; 2010) emphasised the limitations of focusing on missing-value and comparison problems.”