Middle School Students’ Understanding of Average

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate 6, 7 and 8th grade students’ understanding of average
and how these understandings change with respect to the grade level. Participants of the study were 18 students,
6 from each grade level. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data. Five problems related to
the concept of average were asked to the students during the interviews. Problems were developed with respect
to the literature review. Data collected were analyzed using content analysis technique. Analysis showed that
most of the students understood average as an arithmetic mean, students mostly preferred the arithmetic mean
algorithm as a strategy and they didn’t recognize average as a representative value. Results of the study were
discussed in terms of the statistics education at middle school level.