Pre-service primary school teachers’ preference of the problem solving strategies for word problems

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the pre-service primary school teachers’ problem solving skills and their preferences of problem solving strategies in the word problems. There were a total of 200 pre-service primary school teachers enrolled in teacher education programs in three different universities in Turkey. In the collection of the data, researchers developed the open ended word problems, usually in at least two strategies. This instrument was administered to the participants. All pre-service teachers were told to use any strategies that they would like to use, in solving the problems. After the collection of the data, strategies used by pre-service teachers in solving the problems were identified and categorized. The researchers used the descriptive statistics in analysis of the data. The results showed that pre-service primary school teachers preferred various problem solving strategies, such as algebraic strategy, arithmetic strategies, use a model for solving of the word problems.