Building problem-solving strategies with 6–7-year-old children

Abstract

This study seeks to perceive how students understand problem solving, identifying their solving strategies. It tries to answer the following questions: What strategies do students use to solve problems? How can problem-solving skills be promoted? What difficulties do students reveal in problem solving? The participants were 1st-graders (n=22), aged 6 to 7 years old, from Braga, Portugal. A qualitative case study approach was carried out, in the context of mathematics classes. Ten problem-solving tasks were used. The results suggest that the students felt comfortable with strategies such as the construction of schemes and tables, starting at the end, induction attempts, pattern identification, among others. Regarding the promotion of skills in the context of problem solving, the importance of students’ active involvement in discovering procedures and strategies is highlighted, as well as teacher’s role as a mediator of learning and promoter of tasks that favour the emergence of mathematically relevant strategies. The role of creativity and mathematical communication in this process is also important. Concerning problem-solving difficulties, several were identified regarding the interpretation of statements, lack of experience and previous contact with similar problems, in planning, in organizing and simplifying processes, and in solving arithmetic operations.

Keywords
Problem solving; Problem-solving strategies; Mathematical creativity; Mathematical learning