IDENTIFICATION OF STRATEGIES USED IN SOLVING TRANSFORMATIONAL GEOMETRY PROBLEMS

The purposes of this study were to (a) investigate whether subjects' transformational geometry problem-solving strategies could be characterized as holistic and/or analytic, (b) determine the extent to which these types of strategies are characteristic of particular subjects or particular items, and (c) investigate whether strategy usage is related to performance. Ten students from Grades 7 and 8 were videotaped individually as they solved a number of transformational geometry problems. Five problems that showed the greatest range in difficulty and variability in strategy usage were selected for detailed analysis. Each student's approach to solving each problem was classified as holistic or analytic, on the basis of specified criteria. Results indicated that responses could be classified consistently, that some students showed a preference for holistic (or analytic) processing, that some items were more likely to elicit holistic (or analytic) strategies, and that use of analytic strategies was associated with success.