Math 5370 Concept Sudy 3

Running head: TANGRAM CONCEPT STUDY 1
MATH 5370

Tangram Concept Study

Grace Babarinsa
Jose L. Bautista

The University of Texas at El Paso
TANGRAM CONCEPT STUDY 2
Table of Contents
MATH 5370 .................................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4
History of Tangram ..................................................................................................................... 4
Benefits of Tangram in Mathematics learning ............................................................................ 5
Research Questions and Hypotheses .............................................................................................. 6
Hypothesis................................................................................................................................... 6
Method ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Participants .................................................................................................................................. 7
Materials ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Procedure .................................................................................................................................... 8
Day1: (2 hours) ....................................................................................................................... 9
Day 2: (1 hour) ...................................................................................................................... 10
Competency Rates .................................................................................................................... 11
Completion Rates ...................................................................................................................... 12
Results ........................................................................................................................................... 12
Control Group (CG) .................................................................................................................. 12
Treatment Group (TG) .............................................................................................................. 15
Discussion and Limitations ........................................................................................................... 17
Reflection on Cognitive Tension .................................................................................................. 18
References ..................................................................................................................................... 19
Appendix A: Gantt chart ............................................................................................................... 21
Appendix B: Warm-up Activity.................................................................................................... 22
Appendix C: Pre-test. .................................................................................................................... 23
Appendix D: Learning about the Tangram Pieces. ....................................................................... 24
Appendix E: Core activity. ........................................................................................................... 25
Appendix F: Reflection ................................................................................................................. 26
Appendix G: Post-Test .................................................................................................................. 27


Introduction
According to Davis (2008) a concept study is simultaneously inquiries into how
individuals learn mathematics, how mathematics is taught, and how disciplinary mathematics
arises (p.90), which can be put in a nutshell as the learning, teaching and knowledge of
mathematics. This involves a continuing exploration, representation and application of new
images, with the integration of old concepts to develop new ones.
He asserted further that concept study is both productive for extending personal
understandings and becoming more aware of the histories and evolutions of mathematical ideas
(p.91). Through concept study, teacher and students are able to define the cultural knowledge of
mathematics as they collaborate to make apparent, question, and extend the images, metaphors,
and other figurative devices that frame mathematical ideas.
This concept study is carried out with the intention to collect what cognitive tension is
evident as students move from what they know (old concept) to what they should know (new
concept). The result will also serve to help us investigate the extent to which exposure to the set
of connected activities using tangram increase students strategic competence. Now, our question
is Do students who receive intervention on tangram have higher scores in strategic competence
that the students who were not exposed to the intervention?
History of Tangram
Tangram in the Chinese Language, literally means seven boards of skill. It is a very
old Chinese dissection puzzle consisting of seven pieces, called tans which can be arranged to
make numerous pictures. Some say they were created when a man named Tan broke a plate and
used the pieces for a puzzle. Another story says they were court leisure during the Tang dynasty.

Others maintain that the game was spread by the Tanka River people in China when they traded
with American sailors. Other sources claim a more modest origin. They believe that the tangram
can be traced back to the Orient before the 18th century, and then spread westward (Archimedes
Laboratory). Others believe the origin of tangram may be embedded in yanjitu furniture set
during a ruling period in China referred to as the Song Dynasty. The furniture set initially
consisted of six rectangular tables, then a seventh piece was added, triangular in shape, which
allowed people to arrange the seven tables into a big square table. They later became a set of
wooden blocks for playing. During the early 19th century Tangrams were brought to America by
Chinese and American ships.
Benefits of Tangram in Mathematics learning
The tangram puzzle is made up of seven 2-dimentional shapes: a square, a parallelogram
and five triangles. These pieces can be rearranged in various ways to create silhouette patterns of
geometric figures, or even silhouettes of animals, objects or people. The pieces can be compared
to one another to explore various math concepts such as ratio, congruency, symmetry and area.
The objective of the tangram game is to form a specific shape with all seven pieces without any
overlapping (Bohning & Althouse, 1997). Tangrams help to observe that shapes can be seen
from different perspectives, since it can be rotated or flipped. It also helps to understand that
shapes can be related in various ways (for example, a square can be made up of two triangles or
more). The benefits of using tangram activities help children reach the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) curriculum standards. Appropriate use of tangrams by
way of combining, subdividing and modifying the pieces will enable students to discover
relationships between and among the seven pieces, understand geometric concepts and develop
their spatial sense and visualization.

Research Questions and Hypotheses
To what extent will exposure (instruction, discussion, application) to tangram activities,
as presented within the framework of the Set of Connected Activities (SoCA) (Tchoshanov,
2011), increase strategic competence in pre-service teachers?
Hypothesis
The treatment group is hypothesized to show an increase in strategic competence for
tangram after exposure (instruction, discussion, application) to tangram activities, as presented
within the framework of the Set of Connected Activities (SoCA) (Tchoshanov, 2011), for two
weeks of class when compared with the control group who will receive no exposure (instruction,
discussion, application)
Method
The pre-test / post-test control group design (Field & Hole, 2003, p. 78) was used in this
study. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the study. This design used two groups, a control group
(CG) and an experimental
or treatment group (TG). Using this method, behavior (or strategy) is measured before
intervention, when it should be roughly comparable between the two conditions. Behavior is then
measured again after the intervention and any difference between the two conditions now, is
presumed to be due to the treatment administered to the experimental group. A small
Figure 1: Pre-test/Control Group Design

disadvantage of this experimental design is that pre-testing the participants might affect their
subsequent performance. We were interested in analyzing the differences in our results which
have been produced by our experimental intervention.
For our data, it was observed that the required tests of normality in order to use t-tests
were not passed; therefore, we were not able to use t-tests. Instead, F-tests were used. The ratio
of the mean square regression over the mean square residual yields the F-statistic (Huitema,
2011, p. 70). This statistic is compared with the critical value of F based on 1 and N 2 degrees
of freedom. If the obtained value of F is equal to or greater than the critical value, the null
hypothesis is rejected and it is concluded that sufficient evidence is available to conclude that the
population slope is not zero. That is, the sample
provides convincing evidence that there is

some degree of linear relationship between X and Y in the population. The decision rule based
on a p-value is rejected if p is equal to or less than (which is usually 0.05), otherwise retain.
The study lasted two weeks meeting 2 hours per week with each group, the middle school
pre-service mathematics teachers had class on Mondays (only one day per week) while the
elementary pre-service mathematics teachers had class on Tuesdays (once per week also). While
designing the study, it was concluded that at least two sessions were needed. A Gantt chart was
constructed (see appendix A) at the beginning phase of the design to cope with the different
sections of the study in order to complete everything on time.
Participants
We implemented the Set of Connected Activities (SoCA) of Dr. Tchoshanov as a
teaching tool for students taking a mathematics method course during the spring semester of
2012, at UTEP. In an attempt to answer the research questions, a quantitative study was
conducted with two classes of mathematics method students. Due to the structure and constraints

of the college classroom environment, randomly assigned participants were not possible. Pre-
formed classroom student assignments could not be disrupted and had to remain intact. The
instructor who taught the mathematics method used her elementary school section of the
mathematics method course to represent the treatment group. Students enrolled in a middle
school section of the mathematics method course served as the control group. The total treatment
group included 15 participants and the total control group included 13 participants. The control
group consisted of 11 females and 2 males. The treatment group included 13 females and 2
males. More than 90 % of the students in the samples were Hispanic. This study was a quasi-
experimental study, a design that Babbie (2001), referred to as "the non-equivalent control group
design" (p. 341). He gave the example of a school classroom being appropriate for this type of
design. Due to the nature of the school setting, this was a "sample of convenience" (Triola, 2002,
p. 20).
Materials
A set of tangram pieces was provided for each of the participants in the study so they
could work on the activities. Handouts for the warm-up, pre-test, core activities, and post-test
were given to students accordingly. A projector was used and a Sony digital hand held
camcorder with tripod were also used to record the interviews and for later analysis of students
responses and movement of the tangram pieces. A white board and markers were used for
explaining details of the core activity.
Procedure
During the initial stage, on both groups of the study, students were introduced to the
history of the tangram and were presented with a set of tangram pieces individually. Then, a
warm-up activity was given to allow them to create their own designs and to trace them on the

space provided in the warm-up activity sheet. A summary of the set of connected activities is
presented below. It must be noted that the control group only encompassed those activities
included in day 1 due to the experimental design intended (no treatment for this group).
Day1: (2 hours)
1) Warm up activity (15 min)
a) Students were presented with the tangram and allowed to create their own figures.
Several tangram figures were also projected and soon removed to stimulate their
imagination.
2) Pretest (15 min)
a) Students were allowed to individually construct a square using all seven pieces of the
tangram.
3) Learning about the tangram pieces (40 min)
a) Under the guidance of the instructors, students completed the table (see appendix D)
using a side of the square as a non-standard unit length by convenience.
b) Students were induced to find the lengths of each of the sides of the figures and their
areas.
c) As students were filling out the table, instructors were asking questions about the
geometric properties of the tangram figures. Students behaviors and answers were
recorded to find cognitive tensions. For example, when finding the lengths of the
triangles, the instructor asked questions about similarity:
i) Are these two triangles similar? What do you think makes two triangles similar?

ii) When showing the parallelogram, the questions can be what kind of shape or
figure is this, if the figure is a quadrilateral what makes a quadrilateral a
parallelogram?
iii) When dealing with triangles: why do you think two right isosceles triangles form
a square?
4) Core activities (45 min)
a) Students were allowed to construct squares using 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 pieces of the tangram.
At this point in time their movements of the pieces were recorded (not their faces). They
were allowed 5 minutes for each of the cases involving 1, 2, and 3 pieces. For the cases in
which 4 and 6 pieces were required, they were allowed 7 minutes for each case.
b) While students were finding a specific arrangement, they were asked to find other
arrangements using the same number of pieces. For example, they were asked:
i) Can you fill the outlines in another way?
ii) How many different ways are there to fill in this shape?
iii) What do you do when you cannot figure out a puzzle?
iv) Can some tangram pieces substitute for others?
Day 2: (1 hour)
5) Review (15 min)
a) Instructors were guiding students into reflecting about the relationships between the
pieces (areas and side lengths) using the previously constructed table. For example,
noting that there are only certain lengths found in all the set of pieces, and certain

areas. Then they were guided to find areas using the lengths afforded by the different
tangram pieces, thus eliminating pieces for certain arrangements.
6) Post-Test (15 min)
a) Students were asked to construct a square using 5 pieces of the tangram.
7) Reflection (10 min)
a) Students were asked to write why in one of the arrangements is not possible to construct
a square.
b) Students were asked the strategies they used in constructing squares. This was recorded.
Based on the observed strategies that students used for the pre-test, reflection, and post-
test, (pre-test and post-test for the control group), several students were selected for further
interviewing. The interview lasted no more than five minutes and students basically stated the
strategies they used and why they used them. If it was noted that the students increased the
competency rate between activities, they were asked about it; if they decreased in competency
from the pre-test to the post-test they were asked why this was the case.
Competency Rates
Based on the instructors observations about the strategies used by students while they
completed the activities, a categorization (Tchoshanov, 2008, p. 19) was used to denote the
levels of strategic competence involved; table 1 shows the categorizations and the values
assigned. For example, if it was observed that a student utilized pure trial and error, that student
was assigned a value of 0 (refer to the results section to observe these values on the completion
rate column of figure 2).

Table 1: Competency Rates

The ethnicity of the participants was also categorized according to the following arbitrary criteria
observed on table 2.
Table 2: Ethnicity

Completion Rates
Students were assigned a value of 1 if they were able to complete the pre-test, reflection,
or post-test activities within a fifteen minute time frame; if it took them more that fifteen minutes
they were assigned a value of 0.
Results
Control Group (CG)
Data values for pre-test, reflection, and post-test are shown in table 3 below. As can be
observed, there is an increase in the means of the completions rates from the pre-test to the post-
test (from 0.692 to 1.0). However, a decrease is observed in the means of the competency levels,
from pre-test of 0.923 to post-test of 0.692. It is strange that this group, which did not received

any treatment, had an increase in the completion rate; however, this shows that these students
were able and agile to move the pieces around by trial and error and all of them were able to
complete the square using only five pieces in the post-test. As mentioned before, by pre-testing
the students, their manipulation abilities increase and this could have had an effect on these
results.
Table 3: Control Group

The F-test for the pre-test and post-test are shown in table 4. This shows that in order for
the variance and mean values to be significant between the two (pre-test and post-test), the F
value should be larger than the critical value; however, according to table 4 it is not. The F value
is extremely large and the P value is inconclusive; thus, this test is not good for determining a
relationship between the pre-test and the post-test.

Table 4: Pre and Post Test F values

In terms of the strategies used for the control group, the F-test (see table 5) shows a P
value greater that was what expected (p>0.05). It can also be noted that the F value is less than
the critical value given by the F-test; consequently, no inferences can be made in this case.
Table 5: F-Test for Strategies


Treatment Group (TG)
As can be observed in table 6, the completion rate means from the pre-test to post-test
increased from 0.667 in the pre-test to 0.933 in the post-test. There is also an increase in the
competency rates, from 0.467 in the pre-test to 1.133 in the post-test. The treatment group started
with a very low level of competence of 0.467, it then increased to 1.267 in the reflection and
changed to 1.133 in the post-test. The change from the reflection to the post-test is very low, and
thus not important to induce us to think that there was significant loss in competency.
Table 6: Treatment Group

The F-Test for the pre-test and the post-test gave
good results, as can be observed in table 7. The P
value is less than 0.05 (p<0.05), the F value of 3.571
is bigger that the critical value of 2.484. This means
that only in 1% of the cases the increase was due to
chance, while in 99% of the cases it happens because
of the treatment; this is the evidence that we are
Table 7: Pre and Post Completion Rate for TG

looking for in the study. As noted from tables 3 and 6, both the control group and the treatment
group have similar means for their corresponding values of completion rate during the pre-test.
Table 8 shows the F-test in terms of the strategies,
the P value is too high although the F value is
higher than the critical value. No inferences can
be made concerning the strategies because the P
value (0.222) is greater than 0.05.

Table 9 shows the values obtained from the F test
performed in terms of strategy between the pre-test and
the post-test. It can be seen that the P value is 0.420 and
the F value is less that the critical value. Thus, there is not
a significant statistical difference to claim that the
increase in strategy was due to treatment.

Table 10 also shows a high value for P, even though the F
value is indeed higher that the critical value. This shows
than in 17% of the cases the change occurred by chance.

Table 8: Strategy Pre and Post Test
Table 10: Strategy F values (Reflection to Post Test)
Table 9: Strategy Pre-test - Reflection

Discussion and Limitations
As was observed in the results section, compatible improvements in completion rates
were seen for both control and treatment groups. However, it was also observed that the post-test
levels of competency differed. For example, the treatment group increased from 0.467 (pre-test)
to 1.267 (reflection) and then stayed almost the same with very little variation on the post-test
(1.333). This differed from the control group in which the competence level started at 0.923 (pre-
test), stayed the same in the reflection but then dropped to 0.692 in the post-test. This difference
in competency levels for both groups indicate that the treatment group increased their
competency level due to the treatment, retained or learned what was taught during the reflection
and continued retention on the post-test. Contrary to this observation, the control group did not
show any retention or improvement in the levels of strategy because they did not receive any
treatment.
Everyone in the control group was able to complete the square using only five pieces (see
table 3) within the fifteen minute time frame. This is interesting because this group was not
subjected to treatment but they showed an improvement in the completion rate. This means that
students in this group were able to move pieces around and fitting them like a puzzle. As
mentioned before, the pre-test could have played an important role in this improvement because
while the students worked in constructing the square with seven pieces during the pre-test, many
of them accidentally formed a square with five pieces. Therefore, when the students were
required to form the square with five pieces in the post-test, some of them quickly remembered
the arrangement they had formed before.
It is suggested that similar studies like this be done with larger groups of participants in
the samples. The problem when using small data sets (N<30) is that the distributions are messy

(Field & Hole, 2003, p. 160), in other words, it is not possible to get a good idea about the shape
of the distribution from less than 30 observations. In this study, using SPSS, we obtained a
normality test and an objective test of the distribution (the Kolmogorov-Smirnov) to find if the
values in the samples were normally distributed. Nevertheless, the tests were non-significant
(p>0.05) and we concluded that t-tests were not appropriate for this study because they require
the data to be normally distributed. We then proceeded to use the F-tests.
In summary, the main limitations to this study were small sample size, lack of random
sampling and assignment of students to groups, not enough differentiation between treatment and
control group, length of the assessment period, limited measures to decipher competence, and
lack of controlling for confounding variables. It is difficult to generalize the study to other
populations because of the small sample size.
Reflection on Cognitive Tension
We observed the following cognitive tensions as we interviewed students and as students
performed the core activities and discuss their strategies used to construct squares:
Participants focused more on the problem (creating the squares) than on the tangram
pieces.
Participants perception of spatial relationships (e.g. flip, slide, rotate) was a barrier.
They focused more on rotating and repositioning tangram pieces on the plane,
attention was not paid to flipping the tangram pieces.
Participant struggled with perceptual constancy. They did not perceive that each
tangram piece has invariant properties, even though they may look different when
viewed from different perspectives.

References
Archimedes Laboratory. (n.d.). Archimedes-lab.org . Retrieved March 16, 2012, from
TangraMagic: http://www.archimedes-lab.org/tangramagicus/pagetang1.html
Babbie, E. (2001). The Practice of Social Research (9 ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Bohning, G., & Althouse, J. (1997). Using Tangrams to Teach Geometry to Young Children.
Early Childhood Education Journal, 24(4), 239-242.
Davis, B. (2008). Is 1 a Prime Number? Developing Teacher Knowledge Through Concept
Study. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 14(2), 86-91.
Field, A., & Hole, G. (2003). How to Design and Report Experiments. Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage Publications Inc.
Huitema, B. E. (2011). The Analysis of Covariance and Alternatives (2nd ed.). Hoboken, New
Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Maxwell, S. E., & Delaney, H. D. (2004). Designing Experiments and Analyzing Data. Mahwah,
New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and Standards for School
Mathematics. Reston, VA: NCTM.
Scheaffer, R. L., & McClave, J. T. (1995). Probability and Statistics for Engineers (4th ed.).
Belmont, California: International Thomson Publishing.
Tchoshanov, M. (2008). Building Students' Mathematical Proficiency: Connecting Mathematical
Ideas Using the Tangram. Learning and Teaching Mathematics, 16-23.

Triola, M. (2002). Essentials of Statistics. Boston: Addison-Wesley.


Appendix A: Gantt chart

MATH 5370 - SPRING 2012 weekends
Task FEBRUARY
6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Literature research
General Planning
Concept Study Design
Revision of Forms
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Report Writing
Presentation PowerPoint
In Class Presentation
Task MARCH
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Literature research
General Planning
Revision of Forms
Spring Break
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Report Writing
Task APRIL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Literature research
General Planning
Revision of Forms
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Report Writing

Appendix B: Warm-up Activity
Code _______________________
Ethnicity _______________________
Gender _______________________

Tangram Activity

What is a Tangram?
Tangram is an old Chinese puzzle known as seven clever pieces.

1. Warm up activity.
Construct your own design using all 7 pieces of the tangram. Be creative: you could make a
house, a cat, a person, a strange-looking tree, etc.
Time yourself: how much time has it taken to make your design? _____min____sec.
Trace the borderline of your design below (you may use a blank paper if your design doesnt fit
below).

Exchange your sketch with your classmate so you could recreate her design and she could
recreate yours.
Time yourself: how much time has it taken to recreate it? _____min____sec.

Appendix C: Pre-test.

Construct a square using all 7 pieces. Work individually.

Time yourself: how much time has it taken to make the square? ______min_____sec.

Sketch you square (not only the borderline but also location of each piece in the square)
below.


Appendix D: Learning about the Tangram Pieces.

Look at each piece and tell what shape it is? Are some pieces congruent? Show
congruent pieces and explain why they are congruent. Are some pieces similar? Show
similar pieces and explain why they are similar.
Consider the square piece as a unit square and fill out the table below:

# Sketch the
Tangram
Piece
Name the
Tangram
Piece
Area of the
Tangram
Piece
Side Lengths
of the
Tangram
Piece
Number of
Congruent
Pieces
Area of
Congruent
Pieces

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

a

Square

1

a =1

1

1

List different side lengths
of the Tangram pieces:
Total area
of all 7
pieces:


Appendix E: Core activity.

4. Construct squares using 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 pieces. You may work in small groups and
share your ideas with others. Sketch your squares (including interior lines) below*:
a) 1 piece

b) 2 pieces

c) 3 pieces

d) 4 pieces

e) 6 pieces

__________________________________________________________________________
* For some arrangements there is more than one way to make a square what are they and
why.

Appendix F: Reflection

One arrangement in constructing a square is not possible which is it and why it is not
possible? Write your response below.

What strategies and methods you used to construct different squares? Write your
response below.

Discussion on reflections and review of pre-test.

Appendix G: Post-Test
Construct a square using 5 pieces. Work individually.

Time yourself: how much time has it taken to make the square?
______min_____sec.

Sketch you square (not only the borderline but also location of each piece in the square)
below.

Math 5370 Concept Sudy 3

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Math 5370 Concept Sudy 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Running head: TANGRAM CONCEPT STUDY 1

provides convincing evidence that there is

You might also like