Nurturing Problem Posing in Young Children: Using Multiple Representation within Students’ Real-World Interest

Hyunkyung Kwon; Mary Margaret Capraro

doi:10.29333/iejme/11066

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Hyunkyung Kwon ¹ ^* , Mary Margaret Capraro ¹

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¹ Texas A&M University, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Problem-posing activities have been shown to motivate students’ learning while promoting a multifaceted and interesting educational environment. Moreover, these activities enable students to be engaged in personal interpretations of their own mathematical thinking. The purpose of this study was to determine if using a hands-on learning intervention with multiple representations could improve students’ problem-posing skills. The researchers examined the answers of the participants (n = 14) with the greatest increase in scores from pre to posttest after participating in 20 problem-posing intervention activities to determine how the intervention allowed students to pose valid, real-world semi-structured problems. The researchers qualitatively analyzed the posed problems for logical real-world contexts and the alignment of the setup of each problem to determine if the students’ posed problems were logical and solvable. Results from this study confirm that students were able to build stronger understanding of mathematical content when they were engaged in authentic problem-posing activities that were meaningful to them. Thus, teachers need to include purposeful and focused problem-posing activities into their classroom lessons.

Keywords

problem posing
multiple representation
real-world application

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, Volume 16, Issue 3, October 2021, Article No: em0648

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11066

Publication date: 13 Jul 2021

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Declaration of Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest is declared by author(s).

Data sharing statement: Data supporting the findings and conclusions are available upon request from the corresponding author(s).

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How to cite this article

APA

Kwon, H., & Capraro, M. M. (2021). Nurturing Problem Posing in Young Children: Using Multiple Representation within Students’ Real-World Interest. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 16(3), em0648. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11066

Vancouver

Kwon H, Capraro MM. Nurturing Problem Posing in Young Children: Using Multiple Representation within Students’ Real-World Interest. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2021;16(3):em0648. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11066

AMA

Kwon H, Capraro MM. Nurturing Problem Posing in Young Children: Using Multiple Representation within Students’ Real-World Interest. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2021;16(3), em0648. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11066

Chicago

Kwon, Hyunkyung, and Mary Margaret Capraro. "Nurturing Problem Posing in Young Children: Using Multiple Representation within Students’ Real-World Interest". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2021 16 no. 3 (2021): em0648. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11066

Harvard

Kwon, H., and Capraro, M. M. (2021). Nurturing Problem Posing in Young Children: Using Multiple Representation within Students’ Real-World Interest. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 16(3), em0648. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11066

MLA

Kwon, Hyunkyung et al. "Nurturing Problem Posing in Young Children: Using Multiple Representation within Students’ Real-World Interest". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 16, no. 3, 2021, em0648. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11066