The Use of Realistic Mathematics Education in Students’ Making Sense of Decimals: A Design Research

Abstract

This study investigated development of students’ understanding of decimals through activities that were designed based on the principles of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME). For this purpose, a series of clinical interviews and teaching experiments were conducted. In this research, the study group was composed of 17 fourth grade students from a public school in Aydin, a city in Turkey and design research methodology was used as a research design. As a result of the analyses of clinical interview and teaching experiment data, fourth grade students’ conceptual development schemes in comprehending decimals were created. In this study, activities were carried out by taking into account the basic principles of the GME, the mathematization process of students, and informal information on the subject of decimal fractions. The results of the study show that students follow a path as follows: they can express decimal notation heuristically, connect with part and whole, express decimal notation based on fractions and reach decimal knowledge based on connecting fractions and decimals.