Identifying the primary school fourth grade student's common misconceptions in content area of geometry and measurement: A comparison of their performance with the mean performance at international level

Misconceptions are among the factors which may lead to serious problems in learning mathematics. Understanding the misconceptions and their roots can enhance learning. The aim of this study was to identify the fourth grade students’ common misconceptions in geometry and measurement and to compare Iranian students’ achievement level with the international mean. Identifying Iranian students’ misconceptions has been done by secondary analysis and it was done using descriptive statistics. Misconceptions examined in TIMSS 2003, 2007 and 2011 were identified through content analysis, based on the interpretation of the text. The prevalence of any of the misconceptions was represented with number 0 - 4. The research instrument included the TIMSS 2003, 2007 and 2011 mathematics achievement tests on geometry and measurement. The research population included the Iranian students who were studying in the 4th grade at the time of running those tests and the research sample included the students who participated in the TIMSS tests of the mentioned years. Misconceptions in geometry and measurement identified from different researches were presented in tables titled as “misconceptions from international researches view”. The results of this study showed that though there are different misconceptions in both Iranian and foreign students, but the prevalence of these misconceptions in Iranian and students of other countries were different. These differences were identified and analyzed in this paper.