"I'm not very good at solving problems": An exploration of students' problem solving behaviours

@article{citeulike:2925565, abstract = {This 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 [`]na\"{i}ve', [`]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 na\"{i}ve, routine or sophisticated problem solving behaviours. This paper describes common problem solving behaviours and details three individual cases involving na\"{i}ve, routine and sophisticated problem solvers.}, author = {Muir, Tracey and Beswick, Kim and Williamson, John }, citeulike-article-id = {2925565}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2008.04.003}, journal = {The Journal of Mathematical Behavior}, keywords = {problem-solving}, posted-at = {2008-06-25 10:41:21}, priority = {2}, title = {"I'm not very good at solving problems": An exploration of students' problem solving behaviours}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2008.04.003}, volume = {In Press, Corrected Proof} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2925565 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2925565 TI - "I'm not very good at solving problems": An exploration of students' problem solving behaviours JF - The Journal of Mathematical Behavior VL - In Press, Corrected Proof N2 - This 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. KW - problem-solving AU - Muir, Tracey AU - Beswick, Kim AU - Williamson, John UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2008.04.003 ER -