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'I'm not very good at solving problems': An exploration of students' problem solving behaviours
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 01:17 authored by Tracey MuirTracey Muir, Kim Beswick, John WilliamsonJohn WilliamsonThis paper reports one aspect of a larger study which looked at the strategies used by a selection of grade 6 students to solve six non-routine mathematical problems. The data revealed that the students exhibited many of the behaviours identified in the literature as being associated with novice and expert problem solvers. However, the categories of ‘novice’ and ‘expert’ were not fully adequate to describe the range of behaviours observed and instead three categories that were characteristic of behaviours associated with ‘naïve’, ‘routine’ and ‘sophisticated’ approaches to solving problems were identified. Furthermore, examination of individual cases revealed that each student's problem solving performance was consistent across a range of problems, indicating a particular orientation towards naïve, routine or sophisticated problem solving behaviours. This paper describes common problem solving behaviours and details three individual cases involving naïve, routine and sophisticated problem solvers.
History
Publication title
Journal of Mathematical BehaviorVolume
27Pagination
228-241ISSN
0732-3123Department/School
Faculty of EducationPublisher
PergamonPlace of publication
UKRights statement
The definitive version is available at http://www.sciencedirect.comRepository Status
- Restricted