| The purpose of the current study was to investigate the factors that affect the performance of young adolescents on proportional reasoning. The factors investigated were: (a) working memory capacity, (b) field dependence/independence, (c) mathematical prerequisite, (d) gender, and (e) grade.; The current study was guided by five questions about proportional reasoning: What are the strategies used by Saudi students? What is the role of working memory capacity in different levels of complexity? Is the performance affected by the quantity type of proportional reasoning problems? Are the difference affected by gender and grade level?; The findings showed that a high percentage of Saudi students produced illogical or incomplete answers (i.e., Lemonade Puzzle 86%; Laps and Gums 68%). The students' performance on the proportional reasoning problems was higher in the LG (i.e., 21%); however, it was slightly higher in the LP problems (i.e., LP comparison 6%, LP missing 8%).; The working memory capacity was found to be associated with the solution of, at least, one proportional problem. This was an indication that large memory capacity is important for the performance on some proportional reasoning problems.; For students' performance, based on the quantity type (e.g., discrete vs. continuous), it was found that female students performed higher than male students on the Laps (e.g., continuous); however, they were not different on the Gums (e.g., discrete) problems.; In addition, the differences between males and females was statistically significant only on the comparison problems of LP; however, there were no significant differences between males and females on the missing values of the LP problems, LG, and NOJT (i.e., Noelting Orange Juice Test). The ninth grade students' performance was significantly better than the sixth grade students' performance for all the three measures of proportional reasoning.; Additionally, it was found in the current study that the factors of working memory capacity (FIT), mathematics (MAT_M, Multiplication section of MAT; MAT_N, division without remainder section; and MAT_R, division with remainder section), and field dependence/independence (FASP, the Find a Shape Puzzle) were significant predictors of students' performance on the proportional reasoning tasks (i.e., LP, LG, and NOJT). |
