Effect of Strategy Teaching For the Solution of Ratio Problems on Students' Proportional Reasoning Skills

This study was carried out to determine the effect of the teaching of different problem-solving strategies on students' proportional reasoning skills in the solution of problems involving the ratio state in the 6th-grade math class of secondary school. A quasi-experimental research design with the pretest-posttest control group was used in the research. While the teaching of ratio problems was provided to the students in the experimental group (n = 16) by using problem-solving strategies for the duration of eight course hours, no strategy teaching was performed in the solution of ratio problems outside the program which had already being applied in the control group (n = 16). In the study, as a data collection tool, the "Proportional Reasoning Test" which was developed by the researchers was applied to the experimental and control groups as pretest and posttest. Furthermore, homework consisting of ratio problems was used to observe the students’ development within the process. The quantitative data obtained were analyzed by calculating with the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test and Mann-Whitney U Test. As a result of the research, it was determined that the teaching of problem-solving strategy in the solution of problems involving ratio state positively affected the proportional reasoning skills of the students in the experimental group.