Identifying Misconceptions of High School Students about First Order Equation

This research aimed to identify the first year high school students’ misconceptions in Pakdasht city in terms of first order equations. In mathematics and science, students need to set up equations and solve them and thus, students must have well- develped understanding of equations. Since conceptual errors are part of the conceptual understanding, and part of the students’ concept formation processes, they can be considered as a useful educational tool. In order to identify the junior high school students’ misconceptions of equations, a test was designed and conducted. The results of this study indicate that students have misconceptions regarding the concept of equation, the equal sign, variable, solving equations, translate word problems into equations and the equations equivalence. Such misconceptions could prevent students from learning higher order equations.