The Effects of Problem Solving Methos on Student's Problem Solving Performance and Achievement

Author(s):

Zeynep Sonay PolatSafure Bulut

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

SES G6, Pre Conf Parallel Session

Time:

2009-09-26

11:00-12:30

Room:

HG, HS 31

Chair:

Hans-Christoph Koller

Contribution

Mathematics instruction has always gained attention from mathematics educators who are trying to make conscious efforts to do what is best for the students. From the beginning of the 1950s mathematics educators have been taken precautions against drill and practice as a primary teaching technique since they felt that children would view mathematics as a body of unrelated facts and procedures rather than as a unified system of concepts and operations that state certain patterns and relationships that exist in the real world. (Larkin, 1991; Leitzel, 1991; Nair & Pool, 1991; Resnick & Ford, 1981) The Principal and Standards for School Mathematics(PSSM)(NCTM, 2000)contains five content standards, which delineate important content students are to learn, and five process standards, which describe capabilities with which all students should leave the mathematics classroom. Among these process standards is problem solving, which defines ways of thinking and knowing, a stance toward learning, and abilities mathematics students should possess. "Students should have frequent opportunities to formulate, grapple with, and solve complex problems that require a significant amount of effort and should then be encouraged to reflect on their thinking" (p. 52). According to this standard, mathematics instruction should, for example, enable students to "apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems" and to" monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical thinking" (NCTM, 2000, p. 52). Successful problem solvers are strategic in developing an understanding of a problem and forming a concrete or mental problem representation. As a student reads a problem, he or she may write down pertinent information, draw a picture, or create a table for the elements of the problem. Next, the student plans a solution strategy, which necessarily depends on the representation formed. Each of these phases, representation and solution, depends on specific types of knowledge structures and the coordination of these types of knowledge (Mayer, 1992). The general purpose of the study is to compare the effects of problem solving method and traditional instruction on students’ problem solving performance and their achievement The research addresses the following questions; 1. What are the effects of problem solving method compared to traditional method on students’ achievement, problem solving performance? 2. What are the students’ opinions related to the effects of problem solving method? 3. How does students problem solving performance changes during the study?

Method

In this study, not the individuals but the groups were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Hence, the study was a quasi experimental design. The research type of the study is matching-only pretest-posttest control group design (Fraenkel & Wallen, 1996). Totally 105 elementary preservice teachers were involved in the study. Instruments Basic Mathematics Achievement Test The test covers all the concepts of the Basic Mathematics II Course. This test was consisting of open-ended questions, most of which had subtasks. This test will consist of 17 open-ended questions. Mathematical Problem Solving Test The test is covers the concepts of the Basic Mathematics Course II. The concepts was embedded the questions in problem type. This test was consisting of 12 open-ended questions. Interviews: The general aims of these interviews were; to check deeply understand the impacts of the treatment on student’s problem solving performance and to learn their opinion about the treatment.

Expected Outcomes

The data was analyzed by using inferential statistics, descriptive statistics and qualitative data analyze. MANCOVA was used in the study to detect the effect of the problem solving method on the collective dependent variables of the post test scores of problem solving performance test and achievement test, when pre test scores of problem solving performance test, pre test scores of achievement test, gender and their previous mat grade were controlled. The result was found that there was a significant mean difference between the control group and experimental on the collective dependent variables of the post test scores of problem solving performance tests and achievement test when pre test scores of problem solving performance test, pre test scores of achievement test , gender and their previous mat grade were controlled. The main finding of qualitative data was students in experiment group tended to solve problems by using different problem solving strategies

References

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Author Information

Zeynep Sonay Polat

Hacettepe University Faculty of Education

Primary Mathematics Education

Ankara

212

Safure Bulut

Middle East Tecnical University, Faculty of Education, Ankara, Turkey

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