THE PROCESS OF PATTERN GENERALIZATION AND THE PATTERN GENERALIZATION STRATEGIES OF THE EARLY 7th GRADE STUDENTS IN KOREA

The purpose of this study is to examine the process of pattern generalization and the pattern generalization strategies of middle school students in Republic of Korea. We have selected twenty early 7th grade students to analyze their process of pattern generalization. As a result, we divided and proposed five different phases of the pattern generalization process; the phase of Recognition, Expression, Strategy Selection and Application, Mapping and Generalization. Students who went through all of the five phases succeeded in providing a correct algebraic formula of the given pattern task. Other students who stopped at a specific of phase had difficulties in successfully generalizing the pattern. Along with the process of pattern generalization, we have also examined students’ pattern generalization strategies. Three different levels of pattern tasks were given based on different levels of pattern complexity: the well-defined, the middle level of complexity, and the ambiguous pattern task. As a result, students favored using numerical strategy in the well-defined and the ambiguous pattern tasks, while the visual strategy was favored in the middle level of complexity pattern task. This study provides the process of pattern generalization activity and an empirical evidence of students’ pattern generalization strategies.