Development of Proportional Reasoning in a Problem-Based Middle School Curriculum / David Ben-Chaim, James Fey and William Fitzgerald.

Contemporary constructivist views of mathematical learning have encouraged curriculum developers to devise instructional materials that help students build their own understanding and procedures for doing rational number computations, solving proportions, and applying those skills to real and whimsical problems. The Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) curriculum supports construction of rational number knowledge by presenting students with a series of units based on contextual problems that require proportional reasoning and computation. The goal of this study was to describe the character and effectiveness of proportional reasoning by students with different curricular experiences as they face problems in which ratio and proportion ideas are appropriate and useful. Performance task papers and follow-up interviews with selected students from the study indicated that, in addition to a greater frequency of correct answers and reasoning compared with control group students, CMP students appeared to have developed greater ability to articulate their thinking. Students from CMP classes had a generally broader and more flexible repertoire of strategies available for problem solving. The results suggest that problem-based curriculum and instruction can be effective in helping students construct effective personal understanding and skill in one of the core strands of middle grade mathematics. (PVD)

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