This study investigated, first students' use of rote and meaningful strategies to explain their computational procedures in division of decimals, and then their abilities to comprehend meaningful strategies in division of decimals and apply them to a meaningful explanation of their computational procedures. / Thirty-eight students randomly selected from a sample of 152 ninth and tenth grade students enrolled in Algebra One and Geometry classes were individually interviewed about their computational strategies on four division of decimal questions. After each computation, 28 of these students were guided through a discussion routine involving a problem circumstance that focused on one of these four computational strategies: measurement, money, fraction and estimation. Following each problem circumstance, they were given an opportunity to return to the prior computation question and apply the particular strategy to an explanation of their computational procedures. / The majority of the 28 students used predominantly rote explanations on the first computation question, before the introduction of problem circumstance one. Then the ten students who were not exposed to the problem circumstances used rote explanations on all four computation questions. All four problem circumstances were comprehended by the 28 students. Only in the case of estimation did a substantial majority of the students use the specific strategy being illustrated by the problem circumstance. However, after the first problem circumstance, there was a decided shift to more meaningful explanations of computational procedures. / This study should be replicated with improved sampling techniques to include high school students in all types of mathematics classes. Future research should also consider the alternative interview designs suggested in the text of the dissertation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-05, Section: A, page: 1456. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74823 |
| Contributors | HARRIS, EILEEN DEMPSEY., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 106 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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