Abstract
Proportion problems were given to pupils in grades 3, 4, and 5. The number structure of the problems was kept at an elementary level and the contexts were varied. The success rates were high, which shows that young children have some understanding of the concept of proportion. Elementary strategies based on addition were often used. Familiarity with the use of ratios in the context, the presence of a mixture, and the use of manipulatives were context variables that influenced performance. The abilities required to solve proportion problems in various contexts were essentially independent from each other. The cognitive characteristics that predict success were found to be different from those that predict use of multiplicative strategies.
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This article is based on research reported in a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of California, Berkeley, in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Ph.D. degree. A preliminary version of the article was presented at the Research Council for Diagnostic and Prescriptive Mathematics, San Francisco, April 1984.
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Tourniaire, F. Proportions in elementary school. Educ Stud Math 17, 401–412 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00311327
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00311327