An Investigation On The Characteristics Of Mathematical Symbols In High School Students

Mathematical symbols play an important role in mathematical teaching. So lacking a good knowledge of mathematical symbols is one of the main reasons why a growing number of high school students find it more and more difficult to learn math. Therefore, studying the characterization of mathematical symbol language ability is of great significance.Firstly, based on the existing research findings at home and abroad and relevant educational theories, this article try to define the connotation and levels of students’ mathematical symbol language ability and reclassify the mathematical symbols taught in senior middle schools according to the different uses of mathematical symbols. Secondly, after a depth-interview with the 286 students from different grades who filled in the questionnaire study and finished the test about the problems arising in the test, the results of the questionnaire and tests have been carefully analyzed using statistical methods in terms of grades, levels of academic performance and genders. Thirdly, after a careful analysis of the factors which affect students’mathematical symbol ability, it is concluded that there are two factors accounting for it. One is the external environment, including curriculum design, goal setting and teachers’teaching view and concepts of teaching methods. The other is the internal environment, including students’knowledge of mathematical symbols, their consciousness of sign and intelligent and non-intelligent factors like emotion, will and interest.Finally, according to the analysis of the results, conclusions can be reached as follows:(1) High school students don’t have a good knowledge of mathematical symbols on the whole. Besides, with students entering higher grades and gaining more knowledge, students’mathematical symbol ability doesn’t improve significantly.(2) Distinct differences exist in students’mathematical symbol ability among students who perform differently in school. The ability of the top students is well above that of average students and students with learning difficulty, which indicates that students’mathematical symbol ability is consistent with their academic performance. This is one of the reasons why students who have difficulty in learning math have mathematical thinking obstacles.(3) In general, there is no significant difference in mathematical symbol language ability among students of different genders.(4) Teachers’ ignoring the teaching of mathematical symbols also account for students’ low ability of using mathematical symbols.(5) To improve students’ mathematical symbol language ability, teachers need to give students’more training in terms of the symbol sense, symbol analysis, construction of symbol meaning and symbol application.(6) To cultivate students’ mathematical symbol language ability, teachers also should change their one-sided teaching view and problem-solving view and establish the symbol teaching view.In conclusion, developing students’ mathematical symbol language ability is an effective, feasible and operational way to improve students’ ability of learning math.