Assessing 10th Grade Male and Female Students’ Apprehension of Geometrical Figures based on Duval’s Theory

The purpose of this study was to investigate 10th grade male and female students' apprehension of geometrical figures based on Duval’s theory, which was done through survey method. The statistical population is 10th grade boys and girls of Pakdasht city and the sample includes 235 students who were selected by cluster random sampling method. The tool is a test based on related research whose face and content validity were investigated by experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha criterion. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including one sample t-test, correlation coefficient and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used to analyze the data. According to Duval’s theory, learning geometry and applying geometrical figures requires four apprehensions, which are perceptual, sequential, operative and discursive. The results indicated that for issues that require discursive apprehension, students' average scores are lower than the average. In general, students' performance in solving problems related to discursive and operative apprehension is lower than their performance in solving problems that require perceptual and sequential apprehension. There is no significant difference between the performance of boys and girls. Also, the results of the Pearson correlation test indicated that there is a significant and positive correlation between every two dimensions of figural apprehensions. The results of the present study inform teachers about the strengths and weaknesses of students and as a result, will improve the methods of teaching geometry. It can also help authors and educational planners determine educational policies.