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

The purpose of this, 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. The study involved pupils from classes in Year 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 Taxonomy 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 students need to support their answers with reasoning from more than one mode; (2) the categorisation 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, stages of development could be identified. [Author abstract, ed]