Abstract
This study implemented two pedagogical strategies, the Thinking Aloud Pair Problem Solving and Pólya’s Problem Solving, to support students’ learning of fractions. The participants were 51 students (ages 11-13) from two Year 7 classes in a government secondary school in Brunei Darussalam. A mixed method design was employed in the present study, with data collected from the pre- and post-tests, problem solving behaviour questionnaire and interviews. The study aimed to explore if there were differences in the students’ problem solving behaviour before and after the implementation of the problem solving strategies. Results from the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test revealed a significant difference in the test results regarding student problem solving behaviour, z = -3.68, p = .000, with a higher mean score for the post-test (M = 95.5, SD = 13.8) than for the pre-test (M = 88.9, SD = 15.2). This implied that there was improvement in the students’ problem solving performance from the pre-test to the post-test. Results from the questionnaire showed that more than half of the students increased scores in all four stages of the Pólya’s problem solving strategy, which provided further evidence of the students’ improvement in problem solving.
Highlights
Problem solving is the process of reaching an acceptable solution to a novel problem, which usually involves critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills [1, 2]
One framework for thinking about problem solving was suggested by Pólya [5], and the strategy is recognised by many people as the steps they undergo during problem solving
The research question explored was “What differences can be observed in the students‟ problem solving behaviour before and after the implementation of TAPPS and Pólya‟s Problem Solving strategies?” An action research framework using a mixed method design was employed with data collected from the pre and post-tests, questionnaires and interviews
Summary
Problem solving is the process of reaching an acceptable solution to a novel problem, which usually involves critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills [1, 2]. One framework for thinking about problem solving was suggested by Pólya [5], and the strategy is recognised by many people as the steps they undergo during problem solving. He suggested the four stages to problem solving: 1. Once the first stage is done, we can look for the strategies to solve the problem, for example drawing a diagram or using variables to create an equation
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