Search results for "problem solving"
showing 10 items of 168 documents
Learning research in a laboratory classroom : a reflection on complementarity and commensurability among multiple analytical accounts
2022
With the myriad theories generated through research over the years, a continuing challenge for researchers is to navigate the multitude of theories in order to communicate their research, integrate empirical results, and make progress as a field by building upon empirical research. The Social Unit of Learning project was purposefully designed so that researchers from multiple disciplines with different theoretical perspectives could work together to examine the complexity of the mathematics classroom. In this paper, we reflect on the multiple analytical accounts generated from the project, drawing from the notions of complementarity and commensurability. Two parallel analyses, applying the …
Teacher Guidance in Mathematical Problem-Solving Lessons : Insights from Two Professional Development Programs
2019
When implementing a problem-solving lesson, the teacher needs to provide students appropriate guidance during problem solving. This demanding task requires understanding students’ work in progress and giving them necessary help without constraining their thinking. In this article, we share insights from two professional development programs on how teachers guided students’ problem solving and how they reflected on these instances. One of the programs included Finnish pre-service teachers, while the other program included US in-service teachers. We analyzed video-recorded problem-solving lessons from 16 Finnish and 2 US teachers in grades 6–9. We found two themes about teacher guidance of st…
Problem Talk in Management Group Meetings
2019
This naturalistic study focuses on problem talk (PT) in hospital management group meetings. The study aims to understand how PT constitutes the hospital organization through the different uses of PT within the meetings, and, therefore, to understand the organizing role of these meetings. The communication as constitutive of organization (CCO) perspective forms the theoretical background of the research. The results of the qualitative analysis show that PT comprises many intertwined tasks that aim to perform the meetings, enhance problem solving, and maintain the relational level of group life. Thus, PT is much more than merely solving problems. In PT, problems are discussed from the viewpo…
Visual cues improve students’ understanding of divergence and curl: Evidence from eye movements during reading and problem solving
2019
The coordination of multiple external representations is important for learning, but yet a difficult task for students, requiring instructional support. The subject in this study covers a typical relation in physics between abstract mathematical equations (definitions of divergence and curl) and a visual representation (vector field plot). To support the connection across both representations, two instructions with written explanations, equations, and visual representations (differing only in the presence of visual cues) were designed and their impact on students’ performance was tested. We captured students’ eye movements while they processed the written instruction and solved subsequent c…
Verbal counting skill predicts later math performance and difficulties in middle school
2019
This study examined the role of verbal counting skill as an early predictor of math performance and difficulties (at or below −1.5 standard deviation in basic math skills) in middle school. The role of fourth-grade level arithmetical skills (i.e., calculation fluency, multi-digit arithmetic i.e. procedural calculation, and word problem solving) as mediators was also investigated. The participants included 207 children in central Finland who were studied from kindergarten to the seventh grade. Path modeling showed that verbal counting in kindergarten is a strong predictor for basic math performance in seventh grade, explaining even 52% of the variance in these skills after controlling for th…
Developing a Method for Measuring Science and Technology Oriented Creativity (STOC)
2021
Abstract The article contains the results of a research within the STIMEY (Science, Technology, Innovation, Mathematics, Engineering for the Young) project funded by the European Union’s Horizon-2020 research and innovation program (2016-2021). In the project, a hybrid learning environment (LE) was developed for both on-site and online learning suitable for the learning conditions in the COVID-19 era and beyond. The purpose of the research segment presented in this paper was to develop an instrument for assessment of the learner’s progress in creativity as one of the key targets of STIMEY. COVID-19 has shown that creativity is also needed to allow education systems the flexibility for unexp…
Matematica in sezione: tradizioni culturali, pedagogiche e didattiche vicine e lontane
2014
The Math Teaching at School means to reflect on the pedagogical and didactical traditions that are present in the classroom didactical practice; cultural references emerging since the first years of the kindergarden. This work claims to discuss a possible epistemic reflection on our way of working in School through a possible comparison with a didactic setting very different from ours, the Chinese one. We present the practice of variation, that can be found in textbooks as a significant methodology for the teaching/learning of the mathematical thought at Kindergarten and Primary School.
Emma's mathematical thinking, problem solving and affect
2015
International audience; This paper aims to understand one pupil's mathematical thinking through problem solving and mathematics related affect. The results reveal a successful, though quite unsure, problem solver whose affective state (connected to problem solving) seems to tell the same story as her affective trait (view of mathematics). The differences between results on affective state and trait seem to be connected mostly to emotions.
“Anything taking shape?” : Capturing various layers of small group collaborative problem solving in an experiential geometry course in initial teache…
2022
Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is widely recognized as a prominent 21st-century skill to be mastered. Until recently, research on CPS has often focused on problem solution by the individual; the interest in investigating how the theorized problem-solving constructs function as broader social units, such as pairs or small groups, is relatively recent. Capturing the complexity of CPS processes in group-level interaction is challenging. Therefore, a method of analysis capturing various layers of CPS was developed that aimed for a deeper understanding of CPS as a small-group enactment. In the study, small groups of teacher education students worked on two variations of open-ended CPS tasks…
Problem solving e metacognizione. L’uso didattico del prompt per sviluppare strategie di problem solving nei futuri maestri
2015
Si presentano i risultati di una ricerca che ha coinvolto in totale 235 studenti del corso di Laurea in Scienze della Formazione Primaria dell’Università di Palermo. Con la ricerca si è inteso individuare le metodologie di sostegno atte a promuovere nei futuri maestri da una parte la capacità di identificare e affrontare situazioni scolastiche problematiche in modo adeguato; dall’altra la capacità di riflettere metacognitivamente sul processo di risoluzione del problema. La ricerca costituisce un esempio di come si possa sviluppare nei futuri insegnanti in formazione quell’insieme di abilità cognitive e metacognitive che confluiscono nella capacità di identificare e risolvere situazioni edu…