Performance of prospective teachers on a proportionality task involving quantities of a magnitude

Abstract

In this article we study the performance of students, prospective teachers of the first years, in a daily proportionality task, involving quantities of one magnitude. The study included 72 students from the 1st year of the Degree in Basic Education at a university in the north of Portugal. Data were obtained through a questionnaire, covering several concepts of proportionality. In this study, the questionnaire task that involves a situation of proportionality involving quantities of one magnitude is explored. From the main results obtained, a better performance in the proportionality situation explored here stands out than in other tasks involving quantities of two magnitudes. On the other hand, at the level of resolution strategies, the scalar and simple rule of three strategies stand out, in which the scalar strategy seems to have been triggered by the type of task and the simple rule of three strategy, as in other studies, maintained a high degree of adherence.