

Education Quarterly Reviews
ISSN 2621-5799







Published: 15 December 2022
8th Graders’ Interpretation of Equal Sign in Scratch: Pan Balance Activities
Nazım Özkan, Meriç Özgeldi, Erman Uzun
Ministry of Education (Turkey), Mersin University (Turkey)

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10.31014/aior.1993.05.04.607
Pages: 79-97
Keywords: Equal Sign, Scratch, Programming, Algebra Teaching
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate how the 8th graders interpreted the equal sign in the pan balance activities they created on Scratch. Five eighth graders (4 girls and 1 boy) in Turkey participated in this study. Case study was employed as a qualitative research method. Data was gathered through the Scratch files created by the students and the think-aloud protocol interviews with them. The questions used in the activities were prepared in accordance with the test created by Matthews et al. (2012). For data analysis, content and descriptive analysis methods were employed. Findings showed that participants interpreted the operational questions as operational and relational questions as relational through using Scratch. Another significant finding emerged in Scratch activities was the fact that in order for the code block to provide an equation, the pan balance was supposed to balance. Employing Scratch in the class teachings may provide variety in learning environments for teaching of equal sign.
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