Abstract
The purpose of this study are to analyze how well middle and high school students understand the concept definition of quadrangle and to explore the phenomenon about their concept image. A test tool was developed and 60 8th graders, 63 9th graders and 65 10th graders were tested, and some students who needed in-depth analysis were interviewed. The results are as follows. First, it cannot be said that understanding level of the concept definition of the quadrangle naturally improves as the grade level goes up. Particularly, it was found that the understanding of the definition of the rhombus is the lowest in all three grades compared to other quadrangle. Second, although female students understood the definition of square better than male students, the understanding level of the definition of trapezoid, parallelogram, rhombus, and rectangle did not differ by gender. Third, it was found that the students who did not understand the concept definition of the quadrangle were more and more influenced by the concept image as the grade level went up. Fourth, it showed that a tendency to be less influenced by the concept definition and more influenced by textbooks and teachers as the grades go up when students form a concept image.
Figures & Tables
Figure 1. Concept definition example of trapezoid.