Clarifying level descriptors for childrens' understanding of some basic 2-D geometric shapes

The purpose of the study, in general terms, was to compare the level descriptors of the van Hiele Theory and those of the SOLO Taxonomy. More specifically. the study was designed to clarify inconsistencies between the two theories as they relate to the understandings of primary and early secondary school pupils.. Th'e study involved pupils from classes in Years 3-7 in New South Wales and Queensland, who were asked to describe a number of common 2-D geometric shapes. The results showed that the descriptors associated with the Solo Taxono-my more accurately described the 'level" · of student thinking. In addition support was found for: 1. the proposal that pupils often function within two modes of reasoning. i.e.. many stu-dents need to support their answers with reasoning from more than on ~ mode: 2. the categorization of students ' responses within a given SOLO 'level ' i.e.. there appeared to be strong evidence to suggest that within some levels of understandings, at least. stag-es of development could be identified. 2. teachers better focus their instructional activities to the students ' level of think-ing. 1. for the van Hie1e Theory (which is pri-marily concerned with student under-standings in Geometry). are three major studies in the U.S. under the direction of Usiskin (1982). Geddes,Fuys and Tischier (1985), and Burger and (1986); Both these theories · have been the subject many recent investigations. Indicative the type of studies that have recently been completed: Of the above theories of learning two stand out and will be the focus of the tion described later in this paper. The theories are the-van Hie1e Theory and SOLO Taxonomy (developed by Biggs and lis)