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RESEARCH PAPER
Investigating Seventh-Grade Students’ Slope Preconceptions
1
Research Center in Mathematics Education, Faculty of Mathematics, Autonomous University of Guerrero, MEXICO
Publication date: 2021-12-12
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2021;17(12):em2053
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
This paper reports the results of research in which the objective was to explore the preconceptions
of slope in seventh-grade students. Preconceptions are understood as students´ knowledge prior
to the formal teaching of a certain concept. For data collection, task-based interviews composed
of ten tasks applied to 21 Mexican students were used. The data analysis was carried out using the
Thematic Analysis method. Results indicate that the students have several preconceptions in which
they consider the slope as any of the following: an intersection with the X or Y-axis, an arithmetic
operation, a length, an object, a height, and something to do. These findings pose the challenge of
achieving conceptual changes from these preconceptions. In this sense, science education has
been the field most exploited in mathematics education; a collaboration between teachers and
researchers from both fields could contribute to finding strategies to face this challenge.
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