점대칭도형에 대한 학생들의 이해 양상과 교육적 함의

Abstract

This paper examines students’ thoughts and the difficulties faced while learning figures with point symmetry. This study was conducted with a class of 5th grade students. We identified the difficulties encountered by them as: confusing the center of a figure with the center of rotation, confusing rotating a figure 180° with moving a figure in the opposite direction, difficulty in specifying and explaining the amount of rotation, tendency to use the property of corresponding sides instead of the property of corresponding points when completing a figure with point symmetry, and difficulty in dealing with both horizontal and vertical directions on grid paper. These findings suggest that the following experiences should be provided while learning figures with point symmetry: distinguishing the center of a figure from the center of rotation, understanding the difference between rotating by 180° and moving in the opposite direction, specifying and measuring the amount of rotation in circular motion, exploring figures with point symmetry on a polar grid, understanding the rotation of a figure in connection with the rotation of its components, dealing with information of both directions in grids, and drawing figures with point symmetry on non-grid as well as grid paper.