The Impact of Various Methods in Evaluating Metacognitive Strategies in Mathematical Problem Solving

Abstract

Problem solving has been the theme of mathematics education in Singapore since the 1980s. For the past two decades, the Singapore mathematics curriculum has problem solving as its central focus and aims to prepare students to be competent problem solvers. Problem solving, as articulated by the Singapore Mathematics Curriculum Framework is supported by five inter-related components and Metacognition is one of the components. However, there are very few studies to find out how metacognition has worked through the Singapore classrooms and its impact on problem solving. This paper presents findings from a study on metacognitive strategies Singapore Secondary One (Year 7) students (N = 783) employed while solving mathematics problems. Discussion will center on the different methods used to investigate the nature of metacognition during mathematical problem solving, namely survey inventory, retrospective self-report and qualitative interview. Findings from this study suggest that results from different data collection instruments may lead to dissimilarities in the findings but provide a multi-facet perspective of metacognition in mathematical problem solving. As compared, findings based on data from a single instrument may only provide a skew perspective. Findings from this study bear important implications to the interpretation of research findings as well as the research designs for better insights to metacognition employed during mathematical problem solving.